About 55 Cos sign MoUs to set up RBHs : Aiyar

New Delhi, Aug 30 (UNI) At least 55 companies have signed MoUs to set up Rural Business Hubs (RBHs) in the country, while 72 others have evinced interest, Union Minister for Panchayati Raj Mani Shankar Aiyar said here today.

Of these 55 firms, 27 are in Karnataka, 11 in Uttranchal, 13 in Tamil Nadu, three in Haryana and one in Uttar Pradesh, Mr Aiyar disclosed this at at the National Conference on RBHs organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Another 72 companies have expressed their interest in setting up RBHs while 22 CII-member companies have already submitted Expressions of Interest.

He said the Ministry of Panchayati Raj has identified potential 846 clusters for industry to explore business interest and establish RBHs.

Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh said there was a need for bringing in paradigm shift in exports which is considered to be a dollar generating activity. This would mean involving producers in villages and towns in the export effort.

The minister said this would involve shifting focus on value addition rather than exporting primary materials. Also, export growth must percolate to smaller areas including large parts of North and East India, which will in turn help absorb the surplus labour.

Mr Ramesh said the government was promoting RBHs as a means to boost employment.

The formal sector employs 16 million out of which 9 million are in direct employment and the rest 7 million are indirect. ''This can be raised to 37 million if the RBH mechanism is successfully implemented,'' he said.

The government has launched three initiatives to develop RBHs that link up with existing government schemes. The first is linking Swarna Jayanti Sampoorna Yojna and Women's self help groups, said the minister. A sum of Rs 2,000 crore has been allocated for this.

Programmes of employment generation have been initiated in Handlooms, Handicrafts, Agriculture and Horticulture Leather, Gems and Jewellery and minor forest produce.

Secondly, the government has allocated Rs 3,750 crore to the Ministry of Panchayati Raj for the development of 280 districts through the Backward Region Plant Fund, the minister said.

The third initiative was developing markets for handicrafts and leather products, through India Brand Equity Fund. The government has allocated Rs 200 crore for it.

RBHs is a unique concept of private-public-Panchayat partnerships (PPPP) initiated by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and CII.

It aims to broad-base economic growth by spreading into rural India by establishing direct linkages between locally available resources and produce goods of international standards.

RBHs also dovetail with on-going development schemes of the government at the local level.

At the conference, the Minister of Panchayati Raj released the Compendium of Centrally Sponsored schemes, which he said, can be integrated for promotion of Rural Business Hubs. RBHs have a wide scope, covering a wide spectrum of traditional activities.

In order set up a RBH, the industry or Panchayat of the region or village identify a particular area. This is followed by a dialogue, screening and assessment and finally, an MoU.

UNI VJ CS PM2042