New Entrepreneur cum Enterprise Development Scheme (NEEDS)

The objective of the Scheme of “Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure” is to provide integrated cold chain and preservation infrastructure facilities, without any break, from the farm gate to the consumer. It covers creation of infrastructure facility along the entire supply chain viz. pre-cooling, weighing, sorting, grading, waxing facilities at farm level, multi product/multi temperature cold storage, CA storage, packing facility, IQF, blast freezing in the distribution hub and reefer vans, mobile cooling units for facilitating distribution of non-horticulture, horticulture, fish/marine(except shrimp), dairy, meat and poultry. The scheme allows flexibility in project planning with special emphasis on creation of cold chain infrastructure at farm level. The integrated cold chain project can be set up by Partnership / Proprietorship Firms, Companies, Corporations, Cooperatives, Self Help Groups (SHGs), Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), NGOs, Central / State PSUs, etc. subject to fulfilment of eligibility conditions of scheme guidelines. Pattern of Assistance - Financial assistance (grant-in-aid) under the scheme is limited to a maximum of Rs 10 crore per project in relation to technical civil works and eligible plant & machinery subject to the following: - For storage infrastructure including Pack House and Pre cooling unit, ripening chamber and transport infrastructure, grant-in-aid @ 35% for General Areas and @ 50% for North East States, Himalayan States, ITDP Areas & Islands, of the total cost of plant & machinery and technical civil works will be provided. - For value addition and processing infrastructure including frozen storage/ deep freezers associated and integral to the processing, grant-in-aid @ 50% for General Areas and @ 75% for North East States, Himalayan States, ITDP Areas & Islands, will be provided. - For irradiation facilities grant-in-aid will be provided @ 50% for General Areas and @ 75% for North East States, Himalayan States, ITDP Areas & Islands. Release of Grant The grant-in-aid under the scheme is released in three instalments of 25%, 40% and 35% as per following schedule: - 1st installment of 25% of the total grant under the scheme is released after ensuring that 25% of the promoter’s contribution and 25% of the term loan has been spent on the project; - 2nd installment of another 40% of the total grant is released after ensuring that utilization of first installment of grant, 65% of promoter’s contribution & 65% of term loan; - 3rd and final installment of remaining 35% of the grant assistance is released after ensuring utilization of the second installment and 100% of promoter’s contribution and 100% of term loan.

Ministry of MSME has been implementing Credit Linked Capital Subsidy and Technology Upgradation Scheme (CLCS-TUS) for promoting competitiveness amongst Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) by the way of wastage reduction through Lean Manufacturing, support for Design improvement, building awareness on Intellectual Property Rights, Zero Defect Zero Effect (ZED) Scheme, digitally empowerment of MSME through Digital MSME and to promote & support untapped creativity of individual and to promote adoption of latest technologies in manufacturing as well as knowledge-based innovation MSMEs through Incubation across India. MSME Champions scheme has been formulated through Standing Finance Committee (SFC) by merging all 6 components of erstwhile Technology Upgradation Scheme (TUS) for a period of 5 years i.e. 2021-22 to 2025-26. It is a Holistic Approach to unify, synergize and converge various schemes and Interventions with a single purpose. The end objective is to pick up clusters and enterprises and modernize their processes, reduce wastages, sharpen business competitiveness and facilitate their National and Global reach and excellence. There are 3 components under the new MSME Champions scheme, the details of which are as below: 1) - MSME-Sustainable (ZED) 2) - MSME-Innovative(for Incubation, IPR, Design) 3) - MSME-Competitive (Lean)