President Pratibha Devisingh Patil has asked financial institutions to increase the flow of credit to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which employ more than six crore people. As per latest figures collected by RBI, loans to small enterprises grew 17.4% in the year to May 21, 2010, coming down drastically from 24% a year ago.
?It is the vulnerable unorganised enterprises which are still perceived as risky by financial institutions, and suffer the greatest constraint in access to credit because of the very nature of operations especially of the traditional cottage industries. I urge banks to give special attention to this aspect,? Patil said at a MSME award function on Tuesday.