The Modi government’s flagship scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY), has resulted in the generation of 1.68 crore incremental jobs in the first two years since its launch, a SKOCH Group report has revealed.

This survey report titled ‘MUDRA Scheme: a Game Changer Initiative on Job Creation’ was released at the 49th SKOCH Summit here.

According to the report, MUDRA loans to the tune of ₹3.42 lakh crore has led to generation of 5.5 crore jobs in just over two years (launched in April 2015). However, an important fact to note here is that 1.68 crore jobs are incremental.

“This means, had the MUDRA Scheme not been launched, these jobs would not have been generated,” said Sameer Kochhar, Chairman of SKOCH Group and author of the report. Kochhar said the MUDRA Scheme has given a substantial push to small lending to businesses.

“Our findings reveal that the total number of incremental direct jobs created due to the MUDRA Scheme in the past two years stood at 1.17 crore. It also led to the generation of 0.52 crore indirect jobs. The total number of incremental jobs generated in two years stood at 1.68 crore,” said Kochhar.

MUDRA loans are available for non-agricultural activities up to ₹10 lakh. Loans are divided in three categories: Shishu (loans up to ₹50,000); Kishore (loans from ₹50,000 to ₹5 lakh) and Tarun (loans from ₹5 lakh to ₹10 lakh).

Srivats.Kr@thehindu.co.in