SFURTI Scheme – The Description, The Eligibility & The Objectives

SFURTI Scheme – What Is It?

The Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI) was introduced in 2005 by the Indian government under the Ministry of MSME with the goal of promoting cluster growth. The program’s major goal is to make traditional industries, which are found throughout the nation, more competitive and lucrative. Traditional industries, which employ a significant number of people, should become more efficient and financially feasible. Common Facility Centers were to be constructed as part of the SFURTI program, with the goal of creating long-term job possibilities.

The SFURTI initiative focuses on khadi, honey, and bamboo with the primary purpose of supporting rural craftsmen and businesses.

Objectives of SFURTI plan

These are the main goals of the SFURTI plan:

• To discover prospective cluster product consumers and learn about their goals, so that a manufacturing line may be set up to meet their needs.
• To supplement sales by replacing supply-driven sales strategies with market-driven sales models and focusing on branding, product mix, and price.
• Create a plan for selling cluster items on various e-commerce platforms.
• To support and help in the production quality and design control of goods, as required to achieve product quality criteria.
• To give higher quality equipment and other tools to the craftsmen involved, as well as to provide shared facilities.
• To improve cluster governance by enlisting the active engagement of many stakeholders. This will allow them to identify looming difficulties and emerging opportunities and, as a result, take the actions necessary to benefit in a coordinated manner.
• Focus on new technology, enhanced market intelligence, process, and creating new public-private collaboration models that can be duplicated progressively on comparable cluster models based on existing sectors.
• To explore ways to create a multi-product cluster with a fully integrated value chain. To apply a market-driven approach to the project’s financial feasibility and the cluster’s long-term sustainability.
• To group various old industries and local craftspeople. The goal is to achieve economies of scale while also becoming more competitive and promoting industries for long-term sustainability.
• To provide long-term employment for local craftspeople working in traditional industries, as well as to promote rural entrepreneurs.
• To emphasize cluster product marketing by concentrating on new product creation, better packaging, and design intervention via the establishment of a stronger marketing infrastructure.
• To supply artisans with skill development training and to improve their skills through improved training and exposure tours.

Plan Interventions

The SFURTI plan covers three different types of interventions:

1. Soft Interventions — This involves raising a general understanding of the program, counseling, developing trust, and motivating people to participate. It also assists craftsmen with skill development, capacity growth, and the establishment of institutions. Visits by craftspeople, product development, and design are among the other steps taken.
2. Hard interventions- This includes the formation of clusters for a variety of items and packaging. Raw material banks, technological upgrades, shared training centers, facility centers, and warehouse facilities are among the other efforts.
3. Thematic interventions – These are interventions that focus on both domestic and foreign markets and comprise numerous clusters within a single industry. These endeavors are aided by advertising campaigns, brand promotion, and collaboration with e-commerce sites to reach new markets and customers.

Eligible Candidates

The following are examples of possible candidates for the scheme:

• Corporate responsibility foundations
• Non-Government Organizations (NGOs)
• State and Central Govt. field functionaries
• Central and State Government institutions
• Private sector with special SPV
• Semi-Government institutions
• Panchayati Raj institutions (PRIs) 

How To Apply?

Proposals should be submitted to the appropriate state office or KVIC by eligible entities. Officials from the State and Zonal levels review the proposals before forwarding them to the Steering Committee for approval.

Methodology Of Implementation

1. Project Management System on the Web (PMS)
2. Clusters are tentatively identified and a list of clusters is created.
3. Technical Agencies’ Engagement and Appointment (TAs)
4. The Scheme Steering Committee has given their approval (SSC)
5. Prerequisites for Funds Release
6. Funds are released to nodal agencies (NAs)
7. Funds are released to the implementing agency (IA)

Criteria Of Cluster Selection

The clusters should be near a concentration of roughly 500 benefit households, which comprise craftsmen, traders, service providers, and raw material suppliers, among other things. Furthermore, these clusters must be developed within one or two district subdivisions.

Clusters based on coir, rural, and khadi industries such as pottery, leather, and so on should be formed.

Other elements examined by the SFURTI program include sustainability, growth potential, and the ability to produce jobs.

The distribution pattern of clusters all across the country is another factor for cluster formation. At least 10% of the clusters must be situated in India’s north-eastern states.

Conclusion

The government intended to build 70 clusters under the SFURTI project, with an appropriate budget commitment of Rs. 149.44 crores. Under the 12th five-year plan, cash sanctioned by the national government plus financing from the Asian Development Bank would be used to build 800 clusters. For each cluster, the government established a three-year deadline for implementing the system.

Between 2018 and 2020, 154 clusters were granted under the SFURTI system, compared to the government’s initial objective of 100.

The SFURTI program is a government of India ambitious scheme created in 2005 to build clusters of rural-based enterprises in various sections of the nation. The goal is to revamp rural industries and provide financial assistance to help them become more competitive, financially sustainable, and lucrative. The government has designated nodal agencies and given cash for the scheme’s implementation. The goal is to bring in a revolution and make rural-based enterprises formidable.