The initiative gets significance in the light of a recent report by the Quality council of India which speaks about poor state of the micro small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector.

In order to make the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) involved with the defence sector globally competent, the government has decided to carry out hand-holding exercise for over 4,000 enterprises. Moreover, these enterprises will have to comply with 25 additional parameters to realise the dream of ‘Make in India’ in the defence sector.

The initiative gets significance in the light of a recent report by the Quality council of India which speaks about poor state of the MSME sector. The report said most of the companies are in such a poor shape that majority of them even do not even meet basic parameters to get any rating.

This came to light in a pilot report which has been prepared by the QCI to assess the condition of MSMEs in the country for the implementation of zero-effect and zero-defect (ZED) excellence in the sector.

The idea of ZED was first coined by PM Narendra Modi when he had said, “Our manufacturing should be with zero defect so that our goods are not returned from the International marketplace, and our manufacturing should be with zero effect, so that it has no negative impact on the environment.”

Speaking about the new initiative, Dr RP Singh, Secretary General, QCI, said, “With the new defence procurement procedure, there is a huge opportunity for the Indian MSMEs in the defence sector to contribute to the Make in India Campaign. There is no better tool than ZED to provide the MSMEs the competitiveness and competence to manufacture not only for the country but for the world. That’s the intent of ZED and through ZED QCI is building an ecosystem which will assist India in becoming the manufacturing hub for the world.”

Officials said to cater to the need of defence industries, ZED Defence model is designed to meet the high bar on quality and business standards for defence. This model will be deployed to assess, handhold and enhance the performance of Indian MSMEs engaged in defence manufacturing.

“During the 12th Plan period, the government has promised us to give subsidy up to 80 per cent depending on on kind and size of MSME and they will go through this entire exercise of certification,” Singh said.

“What we expect that all these bigger companies which want to invest in India will have to source their small components from the Indian small and medium industries. For this, we will have to prepare same parts and components which the foreign players require. It is essential for the organisations to produce good quality products without a negative impact on the environment. This is when an intervention like ZED is necessary,” Singh added.

Earlier, a pilot report by the QCI also highlighted the major concern gripping the MSME sector which includes unskilled manpower, outdated technology, funding and inspector Raj.

Source: Mail Today