The Union Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitely presenting the Union Budget 2015-16, here today, said that our government firmly believes that development has to generate inclusive growth. While large corporate and business entities have role to play, this has to be complemented by informal sector enterprises which generate maximum employment the Minister added. There are some 5.77 crore small business units, mostly individual proprietorship, which run small manufacturing, trading or service businesses. 62% of these are owned by SC/ST/OBC.

 Shri Jaitley further said that these bottom-of-the-pyramid, hard-working entrepreneurs find it difficult, if not impossible, to access formal systems of credit. Shri Jaitley therefore, proposed to create a Micro Units Development Refinance Agency (MUDRA) Bank, with a corpus of ₹ 20,000 crore, and credit guarantee corpus of ₹ 3,000 crore. MUDRA Bank will refinance Micro-Finance Institutions through a Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana. In lending, priority will be given to SC/ST enterprises. These measures will greatly increase the confidence of young, educated or skilled workers who would now be able to aspire to become first generation entrepreneurs; existing small businesses, too, will be able to expand their activities. The Finance Minister further said that just as we are banking the un-banked, we are also funding the un-funded.

Priority lending to SC/ST enterprises under a new MUDRA Bank to refinance microfinance and expand credit access. The Union Budget proposes establishment of the Micro Units Development Refinance Agency (MUDRA) Bank as a refinance and funding vehicle for small, informal enterprises, with a dedicated corpus and separate credit guarantee corpus to support lending through intermediary lenders and micro finance institutions; lending under this arrangement will prioritise enterprises owned by Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to promote inclusive growth by expanding access to formal credit.