Verification of artisans on PM Vishwakarma held in Dimapur

DIMAPUR —  Procedures to verify artisans for Gram Pradhans and Urban Local Bodies (ULB) on PM Vishwakarma website was held in the conference hall of the deputy commissioner’s office in Dimapur on Tuesday.

A DIPR report stated that the programmed was chaired by SDO  of Dimapur, Yanthungbemo Kikon.

It mentioned that PM Vishwakarma, a central sector scheme, was launched on September 17, 2023, by the prime minister to provide end-to-end support to artisans and craftspeople who work with their hands and tools. The scheme covers artisans and craftspeople engaged in 18 trades.

The benefits included recognition of artisans and craftspeople through PM Vishwakarma certificate and ID card; basic training of 5-7 days and advanced training of 15 days or more with a stipend of INR 500 per day and a toolkit incentive of up to INR 15,000 in the form of e-vouchers at the beginning of basic skill training.

The scheme also provides support collateral free ‘Enterprise development loans’ of upto INR 3 lakh in two tranches of INR 1 lakh and INR 2 lakh with tenures of 18 months and 30 months respectively at a concessional rate of interest fixed at 5%, with Government of India subvention to the extent of 8%.

It stated that beneficiaries, who have completed basic training, will be eligible to avail the first tranche of credit support of upto INR 1 lakh. The second loan tranche will be available to beneficiaries who have availed the 1st tranche and maintained a standard loan account and have adopted digital transactions in their business or have undergone advanced training.

Besides, marketing support will be provided to the artisans and craftspeople in the form of quality certification, branding, onboarding on e-commerce platforms such as GeM, advertising, publicity and other marketing activities to improve linkage to value chain.

Report also stated that the scheme would onboard the beneficiaries on Udyam assist platform as ‘entrepreneurs’ in the formal MSME ecosystem.

Enrolment of beneficiaries should be done through common service centres with Aadhaar-based biometric authentication on PM Vishwakarma portal. The enrolment of beneficiaries would be followed by a three-step verification, which included verification at Gram Panchayat/ ULB level, vetting and recommendation by the district implementation committee and approval by the screening committee.