The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), a leading job creator and nodal agency of the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Program (PMEGP), has received over 4.04 lakh online applications from beneficiaries on its new portal, developed in-house, as against 59,479 applications received last year.

“Earlier PMEGP was implemented offline. Till June 30, 2016, total applications received were 59,479. From July 1, 2016, when the KVIC launched online portal, as many as 4,04,354 online applications were received,” Vinai Kumar Saxena, Chairman, said here on Sunday.

The software used for digitalisation of PMEGP was developed in-house by the IT team of KVIC, saving Rs 20 crore, he added.

He said the government had earlier set a target of providing Rs 1,100 crore worth of subsidy for PMEGP in 2016-17, but KVIC’s annual figure touched Rs 1,281 crore.

“Altogether 3.98 lakh new jobs were generated last fiscal with an estimated project cost of Rs 4,778 crore, which is an increase of nearly 24 per cent compared with 2015-16.”

Saxena said the online portal had brought transparency and expedited disbursement of margin money subsidy under the PMEGP scheme directly paid into the beneficiary’s account through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). With digitalisation of the whole process, the applicants can track the status of their applications and avoid middlemen, if any.

KVIC had also digitalised the payment process of market promotion and development assistance (MPDA) for supporting implementation of the Khadi programme.