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Follow UsBhaskar Hazarika
NEW DELHI: Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has roped in Intel to provide assistance to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to computerize their businesses.
Through this initiative, Intel will deliver a range of IT products and solutions, and SIDBI will provide financial assistance to the SMEs in adopting it.
"We have introduced it as 'SMEITLOANS', which will provide easy access for SMEs to get both the finance and technology to adopt IT. The loan is especially available for hardware, software, installations and services," Ramesh Dharma, managing director, SIDBI, said.
He said that the objective ensures IT penetration into the small and medium businesses in the country. Dharma added that SIDBI has made the process of creation or up-gradation of an IT infrastructure for business a lot easier and simpler.
"We have tied up with Intel as it is working with the government in the e-governance plan which is a positive point. We would use the channel partners of Intel to reach the SMEs which will help in realising our goal," Dharma said.
SIDBI will provide assistance in the tune of Rs.5 lakh to Rs.25 lakh, which could be repaid in EMIs over a period of 36 months.
Business enterprises and service sector entities recording profit in the previous two years are eligible for finance from SIDBI. However, they should not have defaulted to any financial institutions.
SIDBI would take about a week to 10 weeks to process the loan application. Any enterprise could apply for the loan by downloading the application form from the website, Dharma said.
As an apex financial institution for promotion, financing and development of industry in the small-scale sector, SIDBI meets the varied developmental needs of the Indian small-scale industries sector by its wide-ranging Promotional and Developmental (P&D) activities.
P&D initiatives of the bank aim at improving the inherent strength of small-scale sector on one hand as also economic development of poor through promotion of micro-enterprises.