New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANS): The Khadi Village Industries Corporation (KVIC) on Saturday launched 72 units under the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme to empower artisans in the country.

MSME Minister Narayan Rane, in the presence of KVIC Chairman Manoj Kumar, inaugurated the 72 units and disbursed the margin money subsidy to 720 PMEGP beneficiaries at the KVIC Office, Mumbai. He advised the KVIC to use new marketing techniques to popularise the khadi.

He appreciated efforts of the KVIC in assisting 72 units under PMEGP and also commended the cleanliness drive conducted on Juhu beach on Saturday.

"It is the mission of the Prime Minister to encourage entrepreneurial skills among youth so more industries can be started and thereby unemployment can be reduced. Only then India can become a superpower. We should imbibe punctuality, sincerity and discipline among us," Rane said.

The PMEGP is a flagship scheme of the MSME Ministry, launched in September 2008 by merging the erstwhile Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP) implemented by tghe KVIC and the Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Yojana (PMRY) implemented by District Industries Centres.

This is a credit-linked subsidy scheme for generation of employment opportunities through establishment of micro-enterprises in rural as well as urban areas and KVIC is the nodal agency at the national level to implement the scheme.

Till September 15, the KVIC, under this scheme, has sanctioned 25,105 projects, released more than Rs 802 crore margin money and has generated employment for 2,00,840 people. It expects that these 720 projects with Rs 27.43 crore of margin money will generate employment for 5,760 people.