Country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) becomes the first Bank to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Quality Council of India on the Zero Defect Zero Effect (ZED) Certification Scheme of Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises, Government of India.

As a part of this MoU with QCI, SBI has decided to offer concessions in Pricing/processing charges for MSMEs having better ZED ratings. SBI is also considering incorporating ZED rating as a parameter in its Bank’s internal rating system.

Briefly, this MoU will pave way for a collaborative arrangement on implementation of ZED on a nation-wide scale on specific activities aimed for the benefit of MSMEs. Both SBI and QCI will define a strategic framework to take forward the vision of Hon'ble Prime Minister for making our MSMEs adopt Zero Defect & Zero Effect practices.

The ZED Certification Scheme of Ministry of MSME is aimed at enhancing the global competitiveness of Indian MSMEs on quality and environment aspects in their systems and processes. It is a continual improvement and rating scheme involving Handholding and Certification of MSMEs with financial support from the Government of India. Ministry of MSME has nominated QCI as the National Monitoring and Implementing Unit (NMIU) of this Scheme.

So far more than 20,000 MSMEs have registered for ZED and many State Governments are already incorporating ZED in their Industrial Policies.

Shares of the bank gained Rs 3.75, or 1.38%, to trade at Rs 275.15. The total volume of shares traded was 132,939 at the BSE (9.40 a.m., Friday).