In an effort to empower exporters in India, the India Exim Bank and SIDBI came together to implement the Ubharte Sitaare scheme. Detailing the scheme, Meghana Joglekar, General Manager, India Exim Bank presented on ‘Ubharte Sittare Programme’ at the Ubharte Sitaare of Uttar Pradesh Conference.
Meghana Joglekar commenced her address by saying “The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched the Ubharte Sitaare scheme in Lucknow in August this year. Meanwhile, the India Exim Bank released a study on the export potential of Uttar Pradesh.”
In her address, she cited a reference on ‘starting a helpline for exporters’ from Navneet Sehgal, ACS, Department of MSME and Exports, Government of Uttar Pradesh, address and said, “We have a website https://eximmitra.in/en/. So, if exporters have any queries regarding the scheme or any other relevant query they can visit our website for the same.”
“For exporters, any sought of your export capability creation, India Exim Bank provides grants and support you.”
She briefed on the Exim Bank and its operations. “Our role is to promote the foreign trade of India and take Indian companies to a global scale. So, this is the mandate we work with. We’re 100 per cent owned by the Government of India… We implement some of the major programmes of the Central government. One of the flagship programmes is Lines of Credit, wherein India gives bilateral assistance to various companies. This is implemented through India Exim Bank.”
Adding on she said that the second leg of the Exim Bank is the commercial programme or the export capability creation. “For exporters, any sought of your export capability creation, India Exim Bank provides grants and support you,” she added.
On the origin of the Ubharte Sitaare programme, she said, “We submitted a policy paper to the Government of India and the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharama announced the Ubharte Sittare programme during her budget speech in February 2020. SIDBI is our partner institution for this programme.” Due to the COVID pandemic, things slowed down in 2020. However, this year the programme gained significant traction, Joglekar pointed out.
On the Ubharte Sitaare, she said, “We’re trying to identify Indian companies that are future champions with export potential. For a company to be identified under Ubharte Sitaare, there has to be a unique value proposition. This differentiating criterion is going to put the companies in the league of those shortlisted for the programme.” The Finance Minister gave a breakup of Rs 1000 crore of which Rs 900 crore will be given as debts. Further, SIDBI and Exim Bank brought in Rs 40 crore each and have developed an Ubharte Sitaare fund and Rs 10 crore each from the two organisations has been assigned for grants, she added. So to identify and nurture companies having unique or different technology, product or process, the programme will extend handholding support to them. The move will, eventually, push the country’s export and economic growth.
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Uttar Pradesh has been one of the front runners in promoting the Ubharte Sitaare programme at the district level. “There is no way a single institution can help such a large cause. We want to do it with the existing banks… Our target is the small and medium enterprises,” she highlighted.
Adding on, Joglekar said, “There are three broad pillars under the Ubharte Sitaare programme – Debt, Equity and Technical Assistance.” Each company is operating in a different way, therefore, the programme offers customised loans as per the requirement of the companies, she added.
“There are three broad pillars under the Ubharte Sitaare programme – Debt, Equity and Technical Assistance.”
She spoke of a small pharma company that makes phospholipids and cater to pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals company. The export orientation of the company is 80 to 90 per cent but they wanted to expand their facilities but large pharma companies were not supporting them owing to inadequate capacity. “We supported this company as this company is the only supplier for India for mRNA COVID vaccines to Pfizer and Moderna. We identified this aspect of the company and supported them under the Ubharte Sitaare programme,” Joglekar said.
Further, she cited a few examples of the beneficiary companies of the Ubharte Sitaare programme working for drone manufacturing, solar powered-cold storage manufacturing, waste management and plastic recycling.
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