Bharat Ratna Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Investment Fund for SC/ST
On the occasion of the 125th birth anniversary of Bharat Ratna Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, the Honourable Chief Minister of Maharashtra has formulated a new policy for Scheduled Castes (“SC”) and Scheduled Tribes (“ST”) entrepreneurs in the State to make them self-sufficient and financially independent. The scheme will be available for manufacturing and services industries set up by SC/ST entrepreneurs. One of the initiatives under the scheme is setting up of an Investment Fund with the primary objective of promoting and providing finance to sustainable enterprises which are fully owned by SC & ST entrepreneurs. The definition of SC /ST enterprises to qualify for the Fund is “Private Limited / Public Limited Companies - Enterprise having Promoters & Directors having 100% controlling stake in the Company”. The Fund’s investments will be done in securities (both debt and equity) of enterprises of SC / ST through multiple instruments such as equity / equity related investments, convertible instruments, debentures, etc.
The Fund is sector agnostic and all manufacturing enterprises as per MSMED Act 2006 are eligible for the Fund. Service enterprises viz. Health Care, Renewable and Non-Conventional Energy, Agri ancillary, Food Processing, Energy efficiency – transmission – distribution, Clean Technology, Light Engineering, Information Technology, Medical Devices, Water and related technologies, Bio-Medical , and Consumption lead sectors. However, the Fund would refrain from offering financial assistance to entities involved in Alcohol /Tobacco based industries, Gold trade, NBFCs (except Micro Finance Institutions), Diamond trade, real estate, trading and all products and services banned by the Government of India and / or Government of Maharashtra from time to time.
The following is an illustrative list of criteria to be met by every applicant. The competent authorities reserve the right to add other fund/company specific criteria. The final decision of investment / divestment shall be subject to approval from the competent authorities of the funds.
The definition of SC/ST enterprises to qualify for the Fund is as below:
Private Ltd. /Public Ltd. Companies - Enterprise having Promoters & Directors having 100% controlling stake in the Company. The company shall fall in the definition of Start-up as defined by the Startup initiative of Govt. of India or MSME as per the Ministry of MSME/Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006.
FDI will be freely allowed in such enterprises within the prescribed limits of existing policy of GOI. In no case, the shareholding of SC/ ST entrepreneurs would be reduced from 51%. The controlling stake at any point of time should be retained throughout the operative period of the scheme.
In addition to the above, the points illustrated below shall also be complied with for applicants under both Scheme 1 and Scheme 2.
