ADB To Provide $300 Mln Loan To Support India's Small Businesses

ADB To Provide $300 Mln Loan To Support India's Small BusinessesThe Asian Development Bank announced that it was offering up around $300 million in financing to assist India build up and swell its micro-, small and medium-sized businesses.

The Manila-based banking institution stated that its board sanctioned a loaning amount of $50 million and a partial credit guarantee of around $250 million for the project.

ADB said micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises offer livelihoods to an approximated 65 million people in India, many of them women residing in slum areas and other deprived residential areas.

Industry is the second-biggest employment segment in India after farming.

ADB added that the loan would go to the nationalized Small Industries Development Bank of India to support enterprises, which have become too large to tap traditional microfinancing but are still incapable to access conservative bank finances.

The credit guarantee permits state-owned commercial banking institutions to source medium- to long-run funds from global capital markets for lending to subsisting smaller-business customers.

The project was likely to benefit approximately 30,000 business groups and generate at least 7,500 new jobs. It would also help expand domestic capital markets by exposing India's banking institutions to worldwide markets. (With Input from Agencies)