Mudra Yojana hasn't grown the way I wanted: Modi

New Delhi, Nov 29Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that the pace of enrolment for the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY) to help small entrepreneurs had not picked up the way he expected it to.

"Though the MUDRA (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency) Yojana is in place to help small entrepreneurs, the speed at which I want to go with it has not been attained," Modi said in his Mann Ki Baat address on All India Radio.

"But the beginning is good. So far about 66 lakh people have benefited ... with Rs.42,000 crore spent. I am happy to announce that out of 66 lakh people, some 24 lakh are women," he said.

"And the majority of these beneficiaries are from among the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Class, people who stand up and themselves take responsibility to take care of their families.

"...PMMY funds the unfunded and is thus focused on empowering people in the true sense," he said.

"It provides a boost to three Es - Enterprises, Earning and Empowerment. The scheme encourages enterprises, provides opportunity for earning, and in the truest sense empowers people. It is helping small entrepreneurs."

"The scheme is trying to help small workers such as barbers, laundrymen, milkmen, newspaper vendor..."

The prime minister said: "I got to know of Mamta Sharma from Bhopal, who got Rs.40,000 from the MUDRA Yojana. 

"She is now running a business of making wallets. She would make wallets earlier too but she would have a lot of problems because of heavy interest rates," he said.

The PMMY, under the MUDRA Bank, has been created for the development and refinancing of micro units.