Mudra helped entrepreneurs escape moneylenders, middlemen's clutches : PM Modi
New Delhi, May 29: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday interacting with the beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) said the scheme has broken the "vicious cycle" of moneylenders and middlemen who used to control an entrepreneur's dream.
"Mudra yojana has protected the interests of entrepreneurs by relieving them from the vicious cycle of 'sahukars' and middlemen," Modi said while interacting with the beneficiaries of the Mudra scheme through video conferencing on the Narendra Modi App.
"This vicious cycle had to be broken and someone had to do that. We did it, we broke it," he added.
The Prime Minister said the scheme was started to promote youngsters, women, business minded people. It was never planned by his predecessors as they stressed on "vote bank politics", he added. "We prepared a product for those who wanted to do something," Modi said.
The Prime Minister said earlier people without connections were unable to get loans and were either forced to wait or migrate to big cities in search of jobs.
"Mudra Yojana has opened up new avenues for youth, women and those who want to start or expand their businesses. Not only this, Mudra Yojana is also acting as a job multiplier," he added.
"Mudra Yojana has transformed lives of the poor. It has strengthened them economically, socially and provided them with a platform to succeed on," Modi said.
He said apart from some 110 banks, there were also 72 Micro Financial Institutions (MFI), nine Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) which were giving loans using much simpler paperwork. Around 75 per cent of these loans are given to youth and women.
The interaction came as the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government completed fours years at the Centre.
PMMY was launched by Modi in 2015 aiming to develop India's micro enterprises sector by providing loans up to Rs 10 lakh to non-corporate and non-farm businesses.
As many as 12 crore entrepreneurs have been benefited by it. There are three categories of loans under Mudra Yojana -- 'Shishu, Kishore and Tarun' -- which signifies the stage of growth from infancy to youth.
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7 held for running fake call centre in South Kolkata
Kolkata (PTI): Seven people were arrested from the Parnashree area in the southern part of the city for allegedly running a fake call centre, a police officer said on Saturday.
Acting on a tip-off, police raided a house on Netaji Subhas Road on Friday night and found the fake call centre operating from the ground floor, he said.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the accused had set up a bogus company using forged documents and posed as employees of an antivirus firm to call citizens in the US, the officer said.
"The callers would gain the trust of victims and then use remote access to take control of their phones or other digital devices. The accused allegedly siphoned off large sums of money, running into millions of dollars, from victims' accounts," he said.
Five laptops, two WiFi routers, six mobile phones and four headsets were seized from the accused, he said, adding that the seven are being questioned to ascertain the full extent of the racket and to identify others involved.
