The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) today hosted an awareness programme in Jaipur on ‘Bank Finance for Gems and Jewellery MSMEs’ which was addressed by experts from the government and the banks.

A large audience heard presentations by Sanjay Meena, Assistant Director, MSME, Jaipur; Biju Patnaik, EVP, IndusInd Bank and Lalit Bajaj, Consultant, GJEPC.

In his address, Pramod Kumar Agarwal, Chairman, spoke about the achievements of the sector and the goals it had set for growth and outlined some of the challenges in the field of finance.

Sanjay Meena’s presentation focused on various MSME schemes being offered by the government departments to encourage the growth of micro, small and medium enterprises. He covered themes ranging from the interest subvention scheme to reimbursement of participation charges for taking part in domestic or international trade shows.

IndusInd is the bank with the highest lending to the gem and jewellery sector and Biju Patnaik presented an overview of their approach to the industry. He also stated that the bank was keen to increase its exposure in industry segments such as coloured gemstones, gemstone jewellery and silver jewellery.

Lalit Bajaj, a consultant with the Council focused on the on need for bank finance for the growth of the MSME sector and how companies could avail of it. He emphasised the importance of having a good credit score which is based on one’s track record.

Members of the audience later raised a number of queries related to finance and MSME schemes which were clarified for them.

Pic caption: GJEPC Chairman Pramod Kumar Agrawal addresses the gathering. Seen on the dais (from l) Vijay Kedia, Convener, Coloured Gemstones Panel, GJEPC; Lalit Bajaj, Consultant; Biju Patnaik, IndusInd Bank; Nirmal Kumar Bardiya, Regional Chairman; Ram Babu Gupta, Silver Jewellery panel and Sanjay Singh, Director, GJEPC