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Over the decades, chemical fertilizers are indiscriminately used in agriculture to increase the crop production, but unfortunately it is considered as a non-sustainable approach due to adverse impact on environment and human health. Bioinoculants provide a better opportunity for ecological farming practices to enhance crop productivity. Different types of bio-inoculants containing single and multiple strains as consortium could be used for crop production soil health. In the present study, efficient microbial consortium consisting mineral solubilizing, and nitrogen fixing microbes were evaluated for growth and physiological parameters of chilli. Rhizospheric and endophytic bacteria were isolated from different cereal crop (foxtail millet, finger millet, maize, oats and, wheat) growing in Himachal Pradesh. All the 145 isolates were primarily screened for minerals solubilization (phosphorus and potassium) and nitrogen fixation attributes. The selected P-solubilizer, K-solubilizer; and N-fixer strains were further screened for solubilization of Zn and Se; production of siderophores, ammonia, indole acetic acid, and hydrogen cyanide. The potential P-solubilizer, K-solubilizer and N-fixer bacterial strains were identified on the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequencing as Erwinia persicina EU-A3SK3, Halomonas aquamarina EU-B2RNL2, and Pseudomonas extremorientalis EU-B1RTR1, respectively. The inoculation of these bacterial strains on chilli as microbial consortium resulted in the increased growth (shoot/root biomass and length; number of leaves, branches and fruits per plant) and physiological parameters (content of chlorophyll, total soluble sugar, phenolics and flavonoids) of the treated plants over the individual strain inoculated plants and untreated control. These potential strains of mineral solubilizers and nitrogen fixer as biofertilizer could be utilized for the horticulture crops growing in hilly region for sustainable agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]