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Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilizers and Health & Family Welfare inaugurated a credit assistance program for Jan Aushadhi Kendras, here today. In this regard, he presided over the exchange of an MoU between Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Bureau of India (PMBI). He also launched a website for credit assistance to Jan Aushadhi Kendras: https://jak-prayaasloans.sidbi.in/home.

Addressing the gathering, Dr Mandaviya said, “Medicines which are affordable and accessible are an essential requirement for any society. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has called them ‘Sanjeevani’ for the poor. From only 80 Jan Aushadhi Kendras in 2014, there are around 11,000 units operating across the country today.” He also said that “it is estimated that around 10 to 12 lakh people visit these Jan Aushadhi Kendras every day, providing them with significant savings and access to requisite medicines.”

Highlighting the Union Government’s efforts towards strengthening the network of Jan Aushadhi Kendras in the country, Dr Mandaviya said that a lot of effort went into making the procurement process robust, expanding the basket of products offered, maintaining a regular supply chain network as well as in ensuring stringent quality checks and control. He also emphasised that the government provided financial assistance to individual operators of these Jan Aushadhi Kendras, including additional assistance for those located in remote and hilly regions, to encourage them to open these centres. This, he said, provided small entrepreneurs with financial autonomy as well as strengthened the network and reach of Jan Aushadhi Kendras across the country.

Expressing his elation at the MoU between SIDBI and PMBI, the Union Minister stated that “this MoU would emerge as a blessing for the small and new entrepreneurs of Jan Aushadhi Kendras.” Noting the potential of this MoU in further increasing, strengthening and modernising the network of Jan Aushadhi Kendras in the country, he urged the Ministry and SIDBI officials to highlight the benefits of this initiative to the states and people at the ground level to ensure its optimum utilisation.

The Union Minister also felicitated the individuals involved in making this credit assistance program successful as well as some of the beneficiaries of this initiative.

Shri Sivasubramanian Raman, Chairman & Managing Director, SIDBI informed that the credit assistance program takes advantage of both GST and the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) of India to provide unsecure working capital loan for small businesses. He said that “DPI is currently based on the layers of identity (through Aadhar) and payment (through UPI linked with Aadhar). Today we are adding a third layer, a ‘credit layer’ using the other two layers in order to make credit flow to crores of small businesses who are not able to secure loans from banks and then get exploited by moneylenders.”