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The Self-Reliant India (SRI) Fund has leveraged nearly Rs 48,000 crore in private investment and supported 824 MSMEs, as per a statement by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).
As per the release, the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises organised an awareness workshop on the Self-Reliant India (SRI) Fund in New Delhi on November 4 to promote women entrepreneurship under the Yashashvini Campaign. Addressing the workshop, MSME Additional Secretary and Development Commissioner Dr. Rajneesh said the government had committed Rs 10,000 crore to the fund, with an expectation of mobilising four times that amount from private investors. MSME Secretary Bharat Khera said registrations on the Udyam and Udyam Assist portals had crossed 10 crore as of October 30, 2026, helping bridge the formalisation gap in the sector. He noted that women-owned enterprises accounted for 37.6 per cent of total registrations and called for increasing their share to 50 per cent. Khera emphasised that greater formalisation had increased the ministry's responsibility to help MSMEs expand their operations, highlighting the importance of access to growth capital. Khera shared that, "Under the SRI Fund, commitments of Rs 8,305 crore had been made against the Rs 10,000 crore corpus, and that nearly Rs 48,000 crore had been leveraged from private venture capital and private equity funds." The SRI Fund is a Rs 10,006 crore fund-of-funds initiative launched by the Government of India under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat package to provide growth capital to MSMEs. As per Khera, 72 daughter funds had been empanelled under the initiative, with investments totalling Rs 21,330 crore made in 824 MSMEs, of which approximately 74 per cent were micro enterprises. Among the enterprises supported, 77 had moved to a higher enterprise category, six had been listed on stock exchanges, and 32 investment exits had been completed profitably. Explaining the investment process, Khera said daughter funds make investment decisions independently on commercial considerations, including business viability, growth performance over the previous three years and business plans demonstrating positive cash flows. The Secretary also added that MSME credit outstanding had grown from about Rs 10 lakh crore in 2014 to over Rs 40 lakh crore, with the non-performing assets for the MSME sector falling to about 3.5 per cent. He also highlighted that the Union Budget 2026-27 had allocated an additional Rs 2,000 crore to the SRI Fund specifically for micro enterprises. Apart from this, Khera referred to the newly introduced Rs 10,000 crore SME Growth Fund, which will directly invest in small and medium enterprises. "He advised entrepreneurs to maintain proper financial records and adopt a suitable legal structure, and said that bringing in equity also improves an enterprises access to debt," the release noted. (ANI)
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