· Over One lakh Gram Panchayats (GP) across the country connected with high speed optical fibre network as per the declared deadline of 31 Dec 2017.

· Delivery of high-speed broadband services in over 2.5 lakh villages benefitting more than 200 million rural Indians.

· As on 31st Dec 2017, 2,54,895 km OFC has been laid covering 1,09,926 GPs out of which 1,01,370 GPs have been made Service Ready.

(i) Number of Telecom Connections up from 898.02 million in 2012-13 to 1194.99 million in 2016-17, registering a growth of 33.07%.

(ii) Total No. of Telecom Connections: 1207.04 million. (September,2017), out of which 501.99 million connections were in the rural areas and 705.05 million were in the urban areas.

(iii) Wireless telephony now constitutes 98.04% of all subscriptions.

(iv) Tele-density: 93.42%. Rural areas: 56.78% & Urban areas: 172.86%.

(v) Number of Internet Connections went up to 431.21 million by the end of June'17.

(vi) FDI equity inflow in the telecom sector touched US $ 6.08 billion during April to September, 2017 which is more than four times that the sector witnessed during financial year 2015-16 and around 10% more than that during 2016-17.

· 235 Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSK) to be set up in two phases across the country to make available passport related services in all the states.

· First POPSK at 25.1.2017 at Metagalli Post Office, Mysuru, Karnataka and Dahod Head Post Office, Gujarat.

· 59 POPSKs functioning in camp mode and remaining 27 are various phase of readiness. Around 3.75 lakh passport appointments have been processed through these POPSKs.

· 23,424 out of a total of 25,353 (92%) Post Offices are on the CORE Banking Services, CBS platform as on 11/10/2017.

· Post Office Savings Bank, POSB is the largest entity in the country on the CBS platform surpassing all the banks. This feat was achieved in less than four years.

· 37.62 Crore accounts and 31.79 Crore savings certificates are on the CBS platform for anywhere banking as of 11/10/2017.

PMEGP is the flagship programme of the government offering credit linked subsidy to establish new enterprises for generating continuous and sustainable employment opportunities in Rural and Urban areas of the country.

Ø Rs. 860.51 crore has been released by the Ministry as margin money under PMEGP out of which Rs. 528.32 crore has already been disbursed by the banks.

Ø 24126 new enterprises providing employment to 170983 persons have been benefited under the Scheme.

Ø There is more than 50% increase over the previous year in terms of funds disbursed by the banks, no of projects with funds disbursed and the employment generated.

ASPIRE has been launched on 16.03.2015 with an objective to set up a network of technology centers, incubation centres to accelerate entrepreneurship and also to promote start-ups for innovation and entrepreneurship in rural and agriculture based industry with a fund of Rs.210 crores.

Ø The planned outcomes of ASPIRE are setting up Technology Business Incubators (TBI), Livelihood Business Incubators (LBI) and creation of a Fund of Funds for such initiatives with SIDBI.

Ø 1st LBI set up in April-2015 under ASPIRE within a month of launching the Scheme. The first batch of 107 youth has been trained and skilled through it.

Ø 19 LBIs have been approved till September 2015 and another 9 LBIs & 2 TBI is ready to be approved.

The objectives SFURTI is to organize the traditional industries and artisans into clusters to make them competitive and provide support for their long term sustainability by way of enhancing the marketability of products, improving the skills of artisans, making provision for common facilities and strengthening the cluster governance systems.

Ø The Scheme guidelines of SFURTI have been revamped in 2015 and the Scheme has taken giant strides in 2015. Funds to the tune of Rs.62 Crore have been sanctioned under the Scheme in 2015 as against Nil in 2014.

Ø 68 clusters have already been approved in 2015 itself against the target of 71 clusters during 12th Plan period with more than a year of the plan period to spare.

LMCS is being implemented across the country to enhance the competitiveness of manufacturing MSMEs. The Objective of the Scheme is to enhance the manufacturing competitiveness of MSMEs through application of various Lean Manufacturing Techniques (e.g. Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), 5S, Visual control, Standard Operation Procedures, Single Minutes Exchange of Dies or Quick Changeover (SMED), Value Stream Mapping, Just in Time, Kanban System, Kaizen, Cellular Layout, Poka Yoke).

Ø 188 New Clusters identified and selected for LM (Lean manufacturing) interventions.

Ø Lean manufacturing Interventions have been initiated in 359 Units.

Ø Organised 63 Awareness Programmes across the country.

CGTMSE was set up to strengthen credit delivery system and facilitate flow of credit to the MSE sector. The Credit Guarantee under CGTMSE seeks to reassure the lender that, in the event of a MSE unit, which availed collateral free credit facilities, fails to discharge its liabilities to the lender; the CGMSE would make good the loss incurred by the lender up to 85 per cent of the credit facility.

Ø During the current financial year (April to October 2015), total number of proposals approved under the scheme was 2,31,774 involving a guarantee amount of Rs.11,446 crore.

CLCSS aims at facilitating technology upgradation of Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) by providing 15% capital subsidy (limited to maximum Rs.15 lakhs) for purchase of Plant & Machinery. Maximum limit of eligible loan for calculation of subsidy under the scheme is Rs.100 lakhs. Presently, more than 1500 well established/improved technologies under 51 sub-sectors have been approved under the Scheme.

Ø During the current financial year (April to October 2015), 1,195 units benefitted and total subsidy released to the tune of Rs. 75.57 crore.