India needs to bring robust policy to finance SMEs: DG Bakre

He said that the Bureau of Energy Efficiency had tried Escrow account and foreign institutional investor (FII) models to get finance for SMEs, but those were not very successful.

India needs to have a robust policy for making funds available to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), particularly for energy efficiency projects, Director General Bureau of Energy Efficiency Abhay Bakre said Thursday.

Addressing a CII conference on energy efficiency here, he said that SMEs were deprived of finances, which they are otherwise eligible for, and are finding it difficult to get funding.

He said that the Bureau of Energy Efficiency had tried Escrow account and foreign institutional investor (FII) models to get finance for SMEs, but those were not very successful.

He also suggested that energy efficiency is "demand-side management", where investments in 10 per cent units can create awareness for all consumers.

Citing an example of the Ujala scheme, he said that 30 crore light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs were distributed under the scheme and aware consumers bought 80 crore LED bulbs from the open market.