AIM announces additional RM50mil allocation to Indian women entrepreneurs
KUALA LUMPUR: Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) has allocated an extra RM50mil to empower Indian women entrepreneurs through the second phase of the Prosperity Empowerment and A New Normal for Indian Women (PENN 2.0) programme.
Deputy Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister Datuk Seri R. Ramanan said the additional allocation brings the total fund for the programme to RM100mil.
He said PENN 2.0 was developed after the success of phase one of the PENN, which benefitted 6,247 Indian women with a total financing amount of RM42,725,640.
"From the 6,247 recipients of this fund, a total of 1,062 were new entrepreneurs. Therefore, the announcement of the additional fund allocation of this RM50mil will give opportunities to more Indian women to involve themselves in business and at the same time improve their standard of living,' he said.
Ramanan said this at the launching ceremony of PENN 2.0 Empowering Indian Women Entrepreneurs at the AIM headquarters here Tuesday (June 3).
PENN, which was launched on April 14 last year, is a government initiative through AIM as the implementing agency to empower Indian women, especially in the field of entrepreneurship.
Ramanan said AIM is targeting that over 10,000 Indian women entrepreneurs in the country would benefit from this additional fund.
According to him, the target of this fund is not only for new participants but this effort will also strengthen support for existing participants to expand their small businesses in various sectors including food, tailoring, beauty and community services.
"Entrepreneurs who have received PENN financing have generally succeeded in increasing their income by 20 to 30 per cent compared to before," he added.
Since its establishment in 1987, AlM has disbursed over RM35.9bil to Malaysians (especially women), in its ongoing efforts to liberate the poor and low-income groups from poverty. - Bernama
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
4 hours ago
- The Star
Exclusive-Walmart's Flipkart secures approval for direct lending in India
FILE PHOTO: Flipkart logo is seen in this illustration taken, February 11, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo (Reuters) -Walmart's Flipkart has secured a lending licence from the Indian central bank and banking regulator, enabling it to offer loans directly to customers and sellers on its platform, a spokesperson for the company confirmed after Reuters reported the development citing documents and a source. This is the first time the Reserve Bank of India has granted a large e-commerce player in India a non-bank finance company (NBFC) licence, allowing it to lend but not take deposits. Most e-commerce platforms currently offer loans in tie-ups with banks and NBFCs, but a lending licence will enable Flipkart - India's largest e-commerce firm - to lend directly, a more lucrative model for the group. The central bank issued its certificate of registration - a document that officially recognizes a company as an NBFC - to Flipkart Finance Private Limited on March 13. Reuters has reviewed a copy of both the certificate of registration and the approval letter also dated March 13. The approval has not been previously reported. Flipkart, in which U.S. retail behemoth Walmart holds a more than 80% stake, applied for the licence in 2022, according to the central bank's approval letter. The Reserve Bank of India did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comments. The e-commerce giant may commence its lending operation "in a few months", according to a source aware of the matter who declined to be identified as the talks are private. A final decision on the launch will be subject to the completion of various internal processes such as the appointment of key management personnel and board members and the finalisation of business plans, the source said. Flipkart plans to lend directly to its customers on its popular e-commerce platform and through its fintech app the source said. It may also offer financing to sellers on the platform, they added. At present, the e-commerce giant offers personal loans to customers through tie-ups with lenders such as Axis Bank, IDFC Bank and Credit Saison. Flipkart, last valued at $37 billion in 2024 when it raised $1 billion in a funding round led by Walmart, is shifting its holding company from Singapore to India. Walmart also aims to take the 17-year-old company public. Walmart bought a controlling stake in Flipkart in 2018, which also gave it ownership of PhonePe, a fintech firm also preparing for an IPO. Earlier this year Flipkart's rival Amazon acquired a Bengaluru-based non-bank lender Axio, but the deal is yet to be cleared by the central bank. (Reporting by Ashwin Manikandan; Editing by Jan Harvey and Ira Dugal.)
The Star
8 hours ago
- The Star
Thirteen foreigners arrested for illegal homestay operations
PETALING JAYA: The Immigration Department has arrested 13 foreigners for operating illegal homestays. The Immigration Department conducted the operation on Tuesday (June 3) along Jalan Ipoh and Jalan Sultan Ismail. Following two weeks of surveillance, the department arrested 10 Bangladeshis, one Indonesian, an Indian, and a Filipino national. "All suspects are aged between 24 and 40 and were believed to be homestay agents," said department deputy director-general (management) Ismail Mokhtar in a statement on Thursday (June 5). Six of the arrested suspects had temporary work visas intended for the construction and cleaning industries. "The rest had no valid travel documents or passes to be in Malaysia. "The group managed homestays by renting them from local owners. Customers made reservations online, which were managed by the suspects. "These activities have been ongoing for around a year. All detained have been brought to the Putrajaya Immigration Department for further action," he said. Six locals and a Bangladeshi national have also been issued summonses to present themselves to the department to assist investigations.
The Star
a day ago
- The Star
India sets date of population and caste census
The government had earlier announced inclusion of caste census in population survey. - Representational photo NEW DELHI: The world's most populous nation India will conduct a census in 2027, its first since 2011, the government said Wednesday (June 4), which will also count caste -- a controversial accounting not done since the country's independence. "It has been decided to conduct Population Census-2027 in two phases along with enumeration of castes," the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement. Most of the vast nation will take part in the census on March 1, 2027, but for the high-altitude Himalayan regions, the counting will take place earlier before snow sets in -- on October 1, 2026. Those areas include the states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, as well as in Ladakh, and the contested region of Jammu and Kashmir. Caste remains a crucial determinant of one's station in life in India, with a rigid societal chasm dividing those of higher castes -- the beneficiaries of ingrained cultural privileges -- from people of lower castes, who suffer entrenched discrimination. More than two-thirds of India's 1.4 billion people are estimated to be on the lower rungs of a millennia-old social hierarchy that divides Hindus by function and social standing. The decision to include detailed caste data as part of the next census -- originally due in 2021 -- was approved by a government meeting headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May. Caste data was last collected as part of the official census exercise in 1931, during British colonial rule that ended with Indian independence 16 years later. Successive governments have since resisted updating the sensitive demographic data, citing administrative complexity and fears of social unrest. A caste survey was conducted in 2011 but its results were never made public because they were purportedly inaccurate. That survey was separate from the 2011 general census, the last time India collected demographic data. - AFP
