Arun Jaitley to launch data bank for MSMEs

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will on Thursday launch a data bank to gather information about micro, small and medium enterprises.

MSME Secretary K.K. Jalan has said that a census of MSMEs online will be carried out for the first time through the data bank, adding this will help save money as the previous census conducted in 2008 cost Rs 50 crore, whereas this one is expected to be completed in just Rs 1 crore.

"We will also be capturing data of MSME Associations," he said.

The MSME Secretary further said the census process will start formally on Friday with the launch of the data bank.

Six online finance facilitation centres will be opened tomorrow in Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Guwahati, Lucknow, Peenya and Delhi.