MP governement to set up Rs 100 crore VC fund to help entrepreneurs

Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh government on October 14 took a decision to create Rs 100 crore venture capital fund to help new entrepreneurs.

"The decision to create Rs 100 crore venture capital fund was taken by the state cabinet at its meeting chaired by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan," an official release said.

The fund will be created as per the rules of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and in the beginning, the fund will be provided to medium, small and micro entrepreneurs to set up their units, it said. The Directorate of Institutional Finance will appoint an advisor by adopting transparent means for the venture capital fund and handholding support of institutional arrangements.

"The fund will help new and talented entrepreneurs, who cannot set up innovation-based new enterprises due to lack of adequate share capital," it said. State's young entrepreneurs will get a share capital at local level. At present, they have to go to other states and metropolitan cities of the country to avail this facility.

The Cabinet also decided to endorse a scheme under PPP mode for construction of affordable houses for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and Low Income Group (LIG) families. It also approved the guidelines issued for the scheme.

The area of the project on which houses are to be built will be transferred to concerning urban body at Rs 1 annual lease rent without any premium. Under the scheme, government land will be identified by concerning Town Development Authority and Special Area Development Authority for construction of houses.

The authority will apply to the Collector to transfer this land to them. A committee headed by the Collector will decide as to whether a proposed land is suitable for the project or not, it said. At divisional headquarters, the committee will be headed by the commissioner.

The Cabinet also approved seven per cent dearness allowance (DA) to government servants and pensioners with effect from July 1, 2014. With this, the state government servants' DA has become at par with 107 per cent DA of their counterparts in Central government.

The decision will entail financial burden of Rs 705 crore on the exchequer during the current fiscal, it said. The Cabinet also took number of other decisions, including payment of pension as per Sixth Pay Commission to the employees of six universities of the state with effect from April 1, 2014 without any arrears and endorsing exemption to film 'Mardaani' from entertainment tax.