Overview
- The Telangana government announced the package on Monday, May 25, committing corpus funds and stronger bank linkages to expand Self-Help Groups (SHGs) from small livelihoods into larger businesses.
- Immediate steps include a virtual foundation-laying for 8,000 Indira Gandhi Stree Shakti Bhavans and district collectors preparing proposals for Mahila Shakti Super Bazaars, mandal warehouses, rice mills and logistics parks.
- The state raised the ceiling for bank-linkage loans to SHGs from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh and cited Rs 60,472 crore already routed through bank linkages toward a target of at least Rs 1 lakh crore.
- Operational milestones set by the government include 553 SHG-owned buses to be flagged off on June 5 and a plan to buy 1,000 buses for SHG ownership and lease to the state RTC.
- Officials say the measures aim to cut out middlemen, ease grain procurement and lower consumer prices, but success will depend on securing large-scale bank finance, land allocation and building managerial and technical capacity within SHGs.