Ubharte Sitaare Fund, An Alternative Fund – Its Benefits, Eligibility & Programme Objectives

Do you avail of Ubharte Sitaare Fund or want to know more about the scheme details? In this article, you’ll discover- What exactly Ubharte Sitaare Fund is, its benefits, objectives and eligibility criteria to avail of funds.

On August 21, 2021, Nirmala Sithararaman initiated the “Ubharte Sitaare Fund” for the welfare and growth of export-based small and medium-sized industries. The SIDBI and Exim Bank are the joint sponsors for the scheme supporting the scheme’s initiatives and objectives.

They provide financial stability and help small to medium-sized export companies by lending adequate bucks in emergency cases. Usually, it’s also well-known as the alternative fund for export-based firms and small businesses.

Let’s understand more about this development programme in the following sections.

What is the Ubharte Sitaare Fund?

The Ubharte Sitaare Fund was launched by Nirmala Sitaraman and set up by the two major banks, SIDBI and Exim Bank. This scheme primarily identifies the strong export small and mid-sized companies with the ultimate future scope and helps them to outperform the competition in local and global markets. Through this scheme, the company can use the latest technological tools to enhance the production process and quality management.

The Ubharte Sitaare Programme also helps the underperforming export-based companies or least potential companies to compete in the global markets. Usually, the programme analyses the challenges, loopholes, and other complexities of the underperforming companies and supports them to fix those issues effectively. This scheme helps the companies through various ways, such as ensuring technical support, debt management, and equity.

In a nutshell, the Ubharte Sitaare Fund is primarily focused on improving the competitiveness of small export-based companies. This programme has a compilation of about ₹250 crores.

Objectives of the Programme

Here are the few objectives of the Ubharte Sitaare Programme:

  • To improve India’s competitiveness in the global markets in specified sectors by ensuring financial and technical assistance aligns with MSMEs’ advisory services.
  • To recognize the great potential companies with a high future scope that leverages efficient technology, production processes, and quality management. Once the scheme recognizes such companies, it provides enough financial and other required assistance to outperform in global markets.
  • Identifying the challenges and objections of underperforming companies and helping them in active participation in export markets.
  • Another major objective of this programme is to support various unique products to shoot in the versatile markets with strategic approaches and initiatives.

Benefits of Ubharte Sitaare Fund

The Ubharte Sitaare Fund helps the smalls and mid-sized export-based companies in multiple ways, from improving technical assistance to financial stability. It offers financial as well as advisory services in case of emergencies.

A few benefits of the Ubharte Sitaare Fund are as follows:

  1. The programme supports and covers equity or related instruments.
  2. It offers term loans for various purposes such as technology up-gradation, production processes, modernization, machinery & equipment, quality control equipment, land purposes, and other industry-related activities.
  3. It helps underperforming companies by identifying the core challenges and solutions.
  4. The programme ensures high-end technical assistance for product enhancement, training, marketing, export activities, studies, research, regulations, and many more.

These are the few benefits that small to medium-sized export-based companies leverage from the programme. Whether the company is lacking either financial support or technical assistance, the Ubharte Sitaare Fund offers everything the company needs to outperform in the international markets.

Companies Selection Criteria for Ubharte Sitaare Fund

Although there are numerous export-based companies, not all companies are eligible to avail of Ubharte Sitaare Funds. Usually, the Exim Bank and SIDBI identify the potential companies based on three major factors, including the company’s unique proposition, financial stability, and complete business model. After undergoing several refining processes, the eligible companies get shortlisted to avail of Ubharte Sitaare Fund and benefits.

The eligibility criteria of the Ubharte Sitaare Fund:

  • Only companies that leverage unique technology, production processes, and global markets get support from the scheme.
  • Another major requirement to this scheme is financial stability; the companies with strong financials and can penetrate into the international market are eligible for the scheme.
  • The company’s annual turnover should be about ₹500 crores.
  • Strong business model, management systems and product quality are other few factors that the scheme considers to refine the potential export-based companies.
Let’s Sum It Up

The Ubharte Sitaare Fund is one of the few popular schemes for MSME growth and developments, especially for export-based companies. The scheme recognizes the potential companies lacking financial support or technical assistance and offers huge support to them from covering equity to providing huge resources and equipment.

To date, the Exmin Bank and SIDBI developed over 100 small and medium-sized companies in various sectors, including agriculture, software, automobiles, etc. In addition, the exclusive strategies and initiatives of this scheme helped hundreds of export-based companies to compete in the global markets. Whether the company is located in metropolitan cities or mini rural areas, the Ubharte Sitaare Fund assists everyone in multiple ways.