The Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), the flagship self-employment scheme of the Ministry of MSME, has generated an estimated 36.33 lakh jobs and helped establish more than 4 lakh micro-enterprises during the 15th Finance Commission period between FY2021-22 and FY2025-26, according to government data released on Wednesday.
Implemented through the Khadi and Village Industries Commission, the scheme recorded full utilisation of its approved outlay of ₹13,554.42 crore during the five-year period, the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises said.
The government said PMEGP facilitated the setting up of 4,03,706 micro-enterprises against a target of 4,02,000 units, marginally surpassing the official goal. The scheme provides margin money subsidies on bank loans to first-generation entrepreneurs for establishing non-farm micro-enterprises in the manufacturing and services sectors.
A significant share of the programme’s expansion was concentrated in rural India. Nearly 80 per cent of the enterprises established under PMEGP during the period were located in rural areas, reflecting the government’s push towards rural industrialisation and decentralised economic growth.
The data also pointed to higher participation from women and socially disadvantaged groups. Women accounted for nearly 40 per cent of the total enterprises supported under the scheme, while about 45 per cent of the margin money subsidy disbursed went to women entrepreneurs.
According to the ministry, around 54 per cent of beneficiaries belonged to SC, ST and OBC communities, indicating the scheme’s outreach among historically underrepresented groups in formal enterprise creation.
The Ministry said the programme continued to contribute to “grassroots entrepreneurship” and self-employment generation by improving access to institutional credit-linked subsidies. Officials indicated that PMEGP would be further expanded in the next cycle with greater emphasis on innovation, scalability and wider outreach.
PMEGP is one of the Centre’s key credit-linked subsidy schemes aimed at promoting self-reliance through micro-enterprise creation, particularly among first-generation entrepreneurs in rural and semi-urban areas.
