On this occasion of International SME Day, G. R. Akadas, Director at MSME Development Institute Bangalore talks about the importance of SMEs in Indian economy.
According to him, SMEs are in a difficult position and the government is trying to bring in policy by bringing in different packages and concessions to uplift the units who are in difficulty.
Schemes like ECLGS are good in line but bankers need to move too on this. It is also the responsibility of all entrepreneurs and associations to bring it to the notice of the government and give good feedback to field agencies like MSME Development Institute where we can take it up ahead.
MSME Development Institute, Bangalore and MSME Ministry together have addressed numerous grievance and have online portal for grievance redressal called as Champions portal wherein we have successfully solved problems like delayed payments, problems related to market, Udyam registration and trying to solve it within 24 hours and try to bring it to the notice of the concerned authorities.
On import substitution, we’ve listed more than 300 items wherein these items which are of simple kind and being manufactured in India but still they are imported in large quantities. We are projecting if these products and services can be taken up for manufacturing and doing this business in India and we have even uploaded the project profiles of these products to begin with 50 of them are already available.
Several measures around skilling are being taken up, the workforce in SME space has been disturbed due to migration and other advancements. We are in the process of setting up technology centers through a world bank project, 15 are coming up and some of them have already started. We are going to set-up 100 extension centers under these 15 technology centers out of which 4 are in Karnataka with Rs 20 crore in each and overall Rs 6000 crore has been allocated for extension centers and enterprise development centers (EDCs) are being set-up throughout the country through an Asian Development Bank project and is going to be a boon for all local entrepreneurs and prospective entrepreneurs.
Cluster approach is also being promoted where we are encouraging several clusters to come out throughout the country and this will largely reduce the burden on single entrepreneurs so that a group is more efficient than a single SME. Rural networks are being encouraged.
Most of the schemes are being simplified like Udyam registration, cluster development, Zero defect scheme is being relaunched.
Entrepreneurs will have to keep faith in authorities who are trying hard to develop the MSME ecosystem and with all the support from entrepreneurs we will rise again because this is not the end and the economy has to reboot.
Economy will revive and we wish to celebrate the next SME day in a grand way.
