21,321 MSME units begin production in Odisha this year

Bhubaneswar: As many as 21,321 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have gone into production in Odisha against a target of 60,000 this year, a report said on Tuesday.

According to the report by the MSME department, the state government set a target to create 60,000 MSME units in 2015-16, while 21,321 units have gone into operation till September, which works out to 35.54 percent.

Gajapati, Deogarh, Keonjhar, Jharsuguda, Boudh, Kalahadi, Balesore, Khurdha, Malkangiri, Kalahandi, Angul, Dhenkanal and Bargarh districts have performed less than the state average.

However, there were constraints for the MSME units as banks were reluctant to finance them.

While 6,456 applications were cleared for banks to grant credit under the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), a credit-linked subsidy programme launched by the union ministry of MSME, only 21 proposals have been sanctioned till September, said the report.