Finance Minister P Chidambaram today asked public sector banks and rating agencies to hand-hold small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to enable them tap the capital market for raising funds. He was speaking after launching the dedicated SME platform 'Emerge' of National Stock Exchange (NSE). Currently seven companies are listed on the SME platform of BSE and one company got listed on NSE platform today.

Stating that tapping the capital market is one of the ways for SMEs to grow, the Finance Minister said, there are entrepreneurs who are willing to come to the market. He said, the banks and other entities can help SMEs through underwriting of the issues, providing merchant banking services and picking up equity.

The Minister said, it is not easy to bring SMEs into the market due to reasons such as regulations of Sebi and otherregulators scaring away small entrepreneurs. But he said, the opportunities for the micro, small and medium enterprises to raise capital and to grow are so large that we must get over these obstacles. About 3.11 crore SMEs contribute 45 per cent to industrial output and 8 per cent to the GDP.