The newly founded Kerala State Minorities Development Finance Corporation (KSMDFC), as part of its first phase of operations, is offering loans to qualified individuals who belong to Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Parsi, Buddhist, and Jain communities.

KSMDFC chairman Cherkalam Abdullah told reporters here on Thursday that the loans were being offered under various projects of the corporation such as self-employment entrepreneurship loan, expatriates loan, mirco-finance, and Mahila Samruddhi Yojana to individuals in the age group of 18 to 55.

The self-employment entrepreneurship loan is up to Rs.10 lakh at an interest rate of 2 to 6 per cent and beneficiaries get 60 to 72 months to repay it. The corporation offers loans for small-scale enterprises, technical enterprises, and for units dealing with handicrafts, agriculture, and transport.

Click Here for more details

To promote women entrepreneurship, the country’s first Women’s Bank — the Bharatiya Mahila Bank(BMB) — has chosen to do away with collateral for loans availed by the fairer sex.

The BMB will provide collateral-free loans for amounts up to Rs 1 crore, which will instead be covered under the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE).

For loans availed for smaller amounts such as Rs 20,000, the bank will completely waive off the requirement for collateral.

“Women are moderate risk takers. So the question of collateral should not really arise,” said Usha Ananthasubramanian, CMD, BMB. The issue of collateral also tends to discourage women from availing loans, she pointed out, since much of the immovable property tends to be in the name of the husband or father. The bank, which was set up in November last year, has begun to receive queries for its various credit schemes (so as for short term loans from Lend Genius) such as kitchen loan, loans to set up beauty parlours, day-care centres and catering units apart from plain vanilla products such as car and education loans.

Click Here for details and the Bank’s website

The primary objective of Venture Capital is to make available long-term funds to unlisted companies in the Information Technology, Biotechnology, Nano-technology and other knowledge based industries from KITVEN Fund – 2 and agro processing, automobile components, aerospace engineering, clean energy, production of patented products and such other sectors from KARVEN Fund to :

• Develop competitive products and cutting-edge technology
• Manufacture and commercialize the product development
• Move up in the value chain
• Expand & upgrade existing capabilities to cater to a wider clientele
• Growth and expansion of an established company including product diversification and forward / backward integration
• Turnaround financing

The Fund is fully committed for investment in SMEs & startup units predominantly in the State of Karnataka

Click Here for their website

State Bank of Hyderabad is having a 100 days’ campaign for MSMEs – 16 August to 23 November 2013 with lowest interest rates, 50% off on processing fees, collateral free loans upto Rs. 1 Crore,  and much more.

Entrepreneurs are encouraged to avail of this offer at an early date.