These financial institutions have played a critical role in India’s quest to draw out entrepreneurship. First, they have been instrumental in making available consultancy and advisory services to entrepreneurs at a reasonable cost by setting up a network of Technical Consultancy Organizations (TCOs).
Second, they have helped spread the entrepreneurial culture across the country and to weaker sections of the society by providing financial assistance to first generation entrepreneurs. Third, their contribution to capacity building through entrepreneurship development programmes (EDPs) which are a precondition for lending to prospective entrepreneurs has been notable.