/ under banked areas. financial inclusion, including msme finance and the drive to universal access is the national mandate. financial inclusion makes growth broad based and sustainable by progressively encompassing the hitherto excluded population. with an objective of ensuring uniform progress in provision of banking services in all parts of the country, banks were advised to draw up a roadmap to provide banking services through a banking outlet in every unbanked village having a population of over 2, 000 by march 2012. the reserve bank advised banks that such banking services need not necessarily be extended through a brick and mortar branch but could be provided also through any of the various forms of information and communication technology ( ict ) - based models, including banking correspondents ( bcs ). about 74, 000 such unbanked villages have been identified and allotted to various banks through state level bankers committees ( slbcs ). as at the end of september 2011, as reported by the state level bankers ’ committees of various states / union territories, banking outlets have been opened in 42, 079 villages across the various states in the country. this comprises of 1127 branches, 39998 business correspondents and 954 other modes like rural atms, mobile vans etc. in addition, the reserve bank of india has advised banks to roll out the financial inclusion plans ( fip ) for drawing up an action plan to provide banking facilities in villages with population less than 2000 through multiple channels. ( ii ) need for venture / risk capital venture / risk capital is often a more appropriate financing instrument for high - growthpotential and start - up smes. although msmes commonly use traditional debt, this type of financing is often not accessible for fast - growth and start - up firms. during their initial phase, firms need finance to study, assess and develop an initial concept ( seed phase ) or for product development and initial marketing ( start - up phase ). at this stage, firms may be in the process of being set up or may exist, but have yet to sell their product or service commercially. high - growth firms usually develop an idea, concept or product that requires an incubation period before generating revenues and profits. firms, typically, look for venture capital to provide them with the financing they need to expand or break into new markets and grow faster. thus, the ability of msmes ( especially those involving innovations and new technologies ) to access alternative sources of capital like angel funds / risk capital needs to be enhanced considerably.

##s considerable delay in settlement of dues / payment of bills by the large - scale buyers to the msmes units adversely affects the recycling of funds and business operation of msme units. though the government has enacted the delayed payments act, 1998 many of the msme units are reluctant to pursue cases against major buyers. after the enactment of the micro, small and medium enterprises development ( msmed ), act 2006, the existing provisions of the interest on delayed payment act, 1998 to small scale and ancillary industrial undertakings, have been strengthened. the banks have been advised by reserve bank of india to sanction separate sub - limits within the overall limits sanctioned to the corporate borrowers for meeting payment obligations in respect of purchases from msme sector. in practice, however, the legislation did not improve the position of mses because of their dependence on large businesses for continued business. this problem has to be institutionally tackled by factoring and banks should provide such services particularly for msmes. to facilitate factoring services the government has recently passed the factoring regulation bill that would address delays in payment and liquidity problems of micro and small enterprises. factoring provides liquidity to small and medium enterprises against their receivables from customers and is regarded as a cash management tool. besides, factors would be entitled to take legal recourse for recovering assigned debt and receivables from buyers of goods and services. the factoring bill creates the legislative environment for factoring and makes the process easier. ( vi ) sickness growing incidence of sickness of ssis is yet another area of concern. when the sickness prolongs it leads to the closure of units and unemployment. the mortality of the ssi units is bis central bankers ’ speeches high. this has wider implications including locking of funds of the lending institutions, loss of scarce material resources and loss of employment. the data showing the position of sick small and micro enterprises as at the end of march 2010 & 11 is given below : ( amount in rs. crore ) end of march march total no. of sick units units o / s potentially viable units o / s non - viable o / s viability yet to be decided units o / s units put under nursing units o / s units 5233. 15 964. 75 3891. 33 377. 03 478. 84 5211. 25 1112. 98 3589. 12 509. 15 518. 30 the number of units identified as potentially viable