Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries

To make the traditional industries more productive and competitive and facilitating their sustainable development, the Govt. of India announced in 2005-06, setting up of a fund for regeneration of traditional industries. Pursuant to this announcement, a Central Sector Scheme titled the "Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI)" was launched.

The Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises is implementing the scheme with a view to organizing traditional industries and artisans into clusters to make them competitive and increase their income.

To develop clusters of traditional industries in the country over a period of five years. | To make traditional industries more competitive, market-driven, productive, and profitable. | To strengthen the cluster governance systems with the active participation of the stakeholders. | To build up innovative and traditional skills, improved technologies, advanced processes, market intelligence, and new models of public-private partnerships, so as to gradually replicate similar models of cluster-based regenerated traditional industries.

Following is the list of organisations/institutions that can apply for SFRUTI: | Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) | Institutions of the Central and State Governments | Semi-Government institutions | Field functionaries of State and Central Government | Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs)

The time frame for implementation of Project will be 3 years.

The Scheme covers three types of interventions: Soft Interventions, Hard Intervention & Thematic Interventions

Soft Interventions under the project would consist of activities such as | i. General Awareness, counseling, motivation and Trust building | ii. Skill development and Capacity Building | iii. Institutional development | iv. Exposure visits | v. Market Promotion initiatives | vi. Design and Product Development | vii. Participation in seminars, workshops and training programmes on | technology up-gradations, etc.

Hard interventions will include creation of following facilities: | i. Creation of Common Facility Centres (CFCs) | ii. Raw Material Banks (RMBs) | iii. Up-gradation of Production Infrastructure | iv. Tools and Technological up-gradation such as Charkha upgradation, tool-kits distribution, etc | v. Warehousing Facility | vi. Training Centre | vii. Value addition and processing centre | Note: The assistance for raw material bank (RMB) shall be leveraged with financial institution for enhanced credit.

No. Land should be owned by Implementing Agency.

Implementing Agencies (IAs) would be non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Institutions of the Central and State Governments and Semi-Government Institutions, field functionaries of State & Central Government Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), etc suitable expertise to undertake cluster development. One IA may normally be assigned only one cluster (unless it is an agency with State-wide coverage). The selection of IAs, based on their regional reputation and experience of working at the grass-roots level, will be done by the Nodal Agencies (NAs), on the basis of transparent criteria. Private sector participation shall also be encouraged for the | implementation of the cluster projects. Corporate entities can also take up projects directly by forming cluster-specific SPVs. Corporates and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) foundations with expertise in cluster development will be encouraged to participate as IAs.

No. One Implementing Agency may normally be assigned only one cluster (unless it is an | agency with State-wide coverage).

Established national/ regional level institutions, with proven expertise in artisanal and small enterprise cluster development shall be empanelled as Technical Agencies by Nodal Agency (N.A.) only can play the role of Technical Agency (T.A).

Broadly, ,,traditional industry" means an activity which produces marketable products, using locally available raw materials and skills and indigenous technology. Traditional Industry Cluster, in the Context of this document, refers to a geographical concentration of a sizable number of artisans or micro-enterprises, suppliers of raw materials, traders, service providers, etc. producing, processing, and servicing the same or similar types of products and facing common opportunities and threats

Coir is generally referred to as "Golden Fibre", which is a bye-product of coconut, extracted from the coconut husk.

Broadly, "traditional industry" means an activity which produces marketable products, using | locally available raw material and skills and indigenous technology. Traditional Industry Cluster, | in the context of this document, refers to a geographical concentration of a sizable number of artisans or micro enterprises, suppliers of raw materials, traders, service providers, etc. producing, processing and servicing the same or similar types of products and facing common opportunities and threats.

Clusters are defined as "geographical concentrations of inter-connected enterprises and associated institutions that face common challenges and opportunities". This definition highlights two essential features of clusters: they consist of a critical mass of enterprises located in geographical proximity to each other and enterprises within them share many common features.

Common Facility Centre (CFC) is one of the Components in Hard Intervention where which | artisans/end users can utilize the machineries installed thereon and manufacture coir based | value added products. CFC can also be used as a warehouse for storing and maintaining | finished products.

The above eligible agency/organization has to submit the proposal online through the SFURTI Portal (https://sfurti.msme.gov.in/SFURTI/SignUp.aspx) and the same is to be scrutinized at the State Level and Zonal Level before submitting it to the Scheme Steering Committee for approval.