New Delhi, Oct. 7 -- The Union cabinet on Tuesday approved a Rs.10,000 crore fund to provide equity support to promising small and medium enterprises, ahead of the 57th GST Council meeting that is expected to consider major process reforms for businesses, particularly micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), officials aware of the matter said.

The SME Growth Fund (SGF), proposed in the Union budget, will provide growth capital to enterprises in manufacturing, services, technology and innovation-driven sectors, they said.

In her February 1 budget speech, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed six interventions as the government's "first kartavya" to accelerate economic growth. One of these was to create "Champion MSMEs" through...