Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to pursue inclusive growth with renewed vigor in the New Year so that India shines for all especially those living in six lakh villages. The key to success of this initiative is promotion of MSMEs across India in view of its huge potential for job creation. In a free-wheeling interview MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra, shares his thoughts to SMEpost.com Editor K R Sudhaman on how he proposes to take it forward. Excerpts:
Q: How the new initiatives of the Ministry have worked during the last one year to boost the economy?
A: The major initiatives taken by the Ministry are Udyog Adhaar Memorandum, Digital Employment Exchange and A Scheme for Promoting Innovation, Rural Industry & Entrepreneurship (ASPIRE). The Udyog Adhaar Memorandum is an initiative for ease of doing business which can be filed online at Udyog Adhaar Portal maintained by the Ministry of MSME at http://udyogaadhaar.gov.in. There is no fee for filing and no restriction on filing more than one Udyog Adhaar Memorandum. We are receiving overwhelming response on Udyog Adhaar. Since 18-09-2015 till date more than 1.29 lakh Udyog Adhaar Memorandum have been filed. The Digital Employment Exchange is in line with the Prime Minister’s vision of Digital India wherein industries and job seekers can find employers and vice versa. The various schemes implemented by this Ministry are likely to have a beneficial impact on micro and small enterprises. ASPIRE is focused on assisting the young entrepreneurs to set up new micro enterprises in the manufacturing as well as in the services sector and to support traditional artisans.
Q: MSME sector is one of the major sectors for job creation particularly in rural and semi-urban areas. What steps government proposes to take this forward?
A: The Ministry is implementing major schemes like Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), A Scheme for Promoting Innovation, Rural Industry & Entrepreneurship (ASPIRE) and Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI) for assisting the young entrepreneurs to set up new micro enterprises in the manufacturing as well as in the services sector and to support traditional artisans. ASPIRE promotes livelihood incubators through NSIC, KVIC and Coir Board. Under SFURTI, khadi, village industries and coir clusters have been taken up for development by providing them with improved equipment’s, common facilities centers, business development services, training, capacity building and design and marketing support, etc.
Q: How do you propose to deal with sickness in MSME? What are the new initiatives?
A: The Ministry has notified the ‘Framework for Revival and Rehabilitation of MSMEs’ on 29th May, 2015, in exercise of the powers conferred under section 9 of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act., 2006. Under this framework, any enterprise can seek revival and rehabilitation benefit through a Committee constituted by the banks with representatives from State Governments, experts, regional or zonal head of the bank and the officer in charge of MSMEs credit department of the bank.
Q: Skill Development is one area, which at the moment focuses on the requirement of large industries. How do you propose to make it tailor-made to address the skill requirements of MSMEs for the success of government’s skill India programme?
A: My Ministry is conducting Skill Development Programmes for the entire value chain of manufacturing, starting from village industries to state of the art manufacturing, in sectors like engineering, auto component etc. The basic objective is to provide training to unskilled/semiskilled workers engaged in MSE sector and to equip them with better and improved techno-managerial skills of production. Emphasis is being made to organize maximum programmes in rural areas particularly for weaker sections of society. The 18 Tool Rooms and Technology Development Centres under the Ministry are providing both long and short term training to more than 1 lakh youth annually.
Q: Funding is one of the major problems of MSME sector, which largely depend on informal sources for financing. How do you propose to deal with this issue? What new initiatives government proposed to take. What is the progress on MUDRA Bank?
A: Availability of adequate credit is always a major issue for growth and sustenance of the MSME Sector. In this regard, Ministry of MSME has taken significant initiatives. The Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) scheme provides guarantee cover to collateral free loans up to Rs. 1 crore per borrowing unit. The scheme is expected to address the credit problem of MSE sector. Government has taken a major initiative on the credit front by launching the MUDRA Bank Scheme which caters to three segments of loan upto Rs. 10 Lakh. As per information available, Rs. 42,520.08 crore has been disbursed under MUDRA Scheme to 66,00,241 borrowers.
Q: What new initiatives are in the offing to boost MSME sector. How do you propose to take it forward? What is the road map of the present government to develop MSME in rural India in view of its job creating potential?
A: My Ministry is implementing a number of schemes and programmes relating to credit, infrastructure development, technology up gradation, etc to boost the MSME sector. The major schemes include Credit Guarantee Scheme, Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme, and Design Clinic scheme, Cluster Development Programme, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme and Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme. Ministry has launched web portal “Digital Employment Exchange” for Industries. Recently, Ministry has taken a very important initiative through inclusion of Udyog Adhaar which is an online one page registration for ease of doing business. For job creation in rural areas, schemes like PMEGP, SFURTI & ASPIRE are being implemented.
Q: How do you propose to develop cluster development in the country to promote growth of MSME?
A: Clustering is a global phenomenon for the sustenance of MSME Sector. The Ministry of MSME is supporting modernisation and innovation in MSME Clusters. The Ministry is also developing infrastructure for the MSME Clusters under the Integrated Infrastructure Development (IID) Component of Cluster Development Programme.
