Mumbai, December 30, 2012: The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) today, has entered a Memorandum of Understanding with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to work together for entrepreneurship growth and development of Micro, Small and  Medium, Industries  in the ICT sector in the country. 
As part of the MOU, both the parties will aim to coordinate the synergies in their activities to achieve this objective. NASSCOM and SIDBI will explore and work on various avenues related to entrepreneurship like policy advocacy, structuring of new risk capital and other direct credit products to create an enabling ecosystem for fostering entrepreneurship and development of MSMEs.

NASSCOM and SIDBI will create a joint working group of five members with three nominees from SIDBI and two from NASSCOM that will undertake the necessary assessment and evaluation of the proposals submitted by the eligible NASSCOM MSME members. It will screen the “Eligible Enterprises” on a best effort basis within its pool of members and refer the proposals to SIDBI for evaluation, basis which these eligible MSMEs will be provided financial assistance.

Speaking on the occasion Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM, said, “We at NASSCOM are pleased to enter into a partnership with SIDBI as this comprehensive agreement will allow us to support MSME’s and the budding entrepreneurial ecosystem of India. We are confident, that this collaboration will provide immense value to startups, entrepreneurs and the whole Indian technology community as the financial assistance will help encourage their efforts.”

As part of the agreement NASSCOM will additionally organize meetings/workshops for dissemination of information regarding Risk Capital Assistance/Direct Credit Schemes of SIDBI, to identify eligible enterprises for assistance from SIDBI. The Indian IT industry is estimated to be a USD 100 billion sector providing direct employment to over 2.5 million employees. In addition to contributing towards the economy, this industry has also positively impacted the lives of many through contribution to the various socio-economic parameters such as employment, standard of living and diversity among others. These initiatives being undertaken will continue to add to the growth of the Indian IT Industry.