Being an Aatmanirbhar Bharat or self-reliant India is a dream that will put the country in a significant position in the global market if we can implement it. And we can make this come true only when we have business prosperity across the economic pyramid, especially among those who are at the bottom. They have lots of entrepreneurial energy, but no access to affordable finance.

Nitin Gadkari, minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, has lauded the role of MSMEs in the country’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly when it came to producing personal protective equipment (PPE) kits and sanitizers. The MSME sector rose to the challenge so well that India, which had a negligible production of PPEs, now has a surplus and exports both PPEs and sanitizers. Smriti Irani, the textiles minister, praised the MSME sector for the same reason.

The MSMEs showed that, with the proper support, the sector could ramp up production sharply and aim for the world market. With digital commerce getting popular by the day, reaching out to customers in other countries is no longer a dream for micro and small enterprises.

However, access to capital might remain a challenge: the micro-entrepreneurs continue to lack the financial muscle to provide the collateral, and the conventional channels of finance may not be able to trudge the last mile in rural India.

Microfinance companies such as VFS have been operating through a successful model of giving smaller enterprises easy ways of accessing funds for businesses. The social collateral model has proven its worth in removing the financial obstacles to growth and enabling entrepreneurial potentials to play out.

Let us also not forget how MFIs support the financial acumen of women entrepreneurs, helping them manage extra revenue streams that create personal prosperity apart from sparking business growth.

I am very optimistic that the combination of digital commerce (powering sales), and microfinance (providing easy access to capital) will play a key role in our Aatmanirbhar journey, not only for self-sustenance but also for export.