Govt Working Relentlessly To Ensure Conducive Environment For Small Businesses: MSME Secretary B B Swain

The government is relentlessly working towards ensuring a conducive environment for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and the number of registered MSMEs has now reached 1.64 crore generating 10.73 crore jobs, said MSME Secretary B B Swain on Wednesday. He also said the ministry of MSME and SIDBI has been working together to launch a formalisation project in January this year to address the challenge of the formalisation of informal microenterprises.

“We are looking beyond the formalisation of these micro units to make this sector the highest employment provider in the country. The figure of 10.73 crore employment generated is based on self-declaration by MSMEs and the sector is surely on its way to becoming the largest employment provider in the country,” said the MSME secretary, while speaking at the 9th MSME Excellence Award and Summit organised by ASSOCHAM on Tuesday.

He said ministries, departments, state governments, industry bodies and other stakeholders are closely working with each other to provide an enabling environment to the MSMEs such as access to credit, low cost of finance, equity infusion, technology upgradation, access to green technology, enhanced procurement, domestic and international market access among others.

“The reduction of guarantee fees for MSMEs will be started from April 1, 2023. The reduction will likely be to the tune of 50 per cent below 1 crore. The new PM VIKAS programme for artisans and craftsmen will strengthen the MSME sector in the country… We are committed towards working for the welfare of the MSME sector and we shall continue to do so,” Swain said.

The secretary has also unveiled a report titled ‘Small Business Confidence Index- Annual Compendium’, jointly compiled by Assocham and Dun & Bradstreet.

Sushma Paul Berlia, chairman of Assocham National Council on Business Facilitation and Global Competitiveness and chairman of Apeejay Stya Group, said, “MSMEs are bringing about significant change in their domains and setting the benchmarks of quality and performance. MSMEs contribute 30 per cent to the country’s GDP, offer livelihood to 11 crore people and account for 40 per cent of the country’s total exports. The entire nation is looking at the MSMEs to play a crucial role in the vision of building an atmanirbhar bharat and establishing India as a $5-trillion economy.”

MSMEs are the nurseries of entrepreneurs, to make them globally competitive and gain a foothold in global value chain the central and state governments have been taking several initiatives, certifications and ECLGS to not only strengthen MSMEs but to also enhance their environmental consciousness. There is a fine balance between looking at sustainability and being sustainable, for MSMEs to be truly sustainable linkages between sustainability and profitability needs to be firmly established.

Ramachandran Venkataraman, director and chief operating officer of V Guard Industries, said, “The MSME sector is presented with a unique opportunity to envision the future of India. We must work to create an ecosystem that is conducive to the growth and success of MSMEs by focussing on four key areas which will be instrumental to helping us get there. Building and strengthening a culture of entrepreneurship, the nature of entrepreneurship has changed and we must be able to evolve appropriately.”

Bhadresh Pathak, business head at L&T-SuFin, said, “Digitalisation is important for MSMEs to enhance efficiencies. Digitisation or digitalisation in isolation does not serve a purpose unless the entities who are on the digitalisation path interact with each other digitally. It is not enough for the buyer and seller to interact digitally but each entity that is a part of the supply chain has to be on the same page and that requires a platform.”

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