The relevant data regarding the country’s 51 million Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) will be digitised soon, according to P Uday Kumar, Director, National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC).

The Union Ministry of MSME has launched the new initiative to capture data regarding these industries online through www.msmedatabank.in. This will help in saving in expenditure incurred at the time of 4th All-India Census, which was approximately Rs. 200 crore.

Further, this data will help the Ministry plan the development activities and incentive programmes well, Uday Kumar said in his address as the Chief Guest at the inauguration of COWE (Confederation of Women Entrepreneurs) of India and NSIC Trade Fair 2016.

At present, a pilot project is on, which has resulted in nearly 18,000 MSMEs coming forward to enter their data base on the platform on their own, he said.

The data is available in physical form. “We will do away with the same in future. We will roll out this initiative in the next one month,” he said.

In Japan, whoever wanted to set up a MSME or SSI unit or for that matter, any industry, needed to fill in just 11 details and get the registration in single go. Whereas in India, we need to fill in 38 various application forms beside various other statutory compliances, he said.

D Chandra Sekhar, Director, said “the Ministry of MSME has set up the infrastructure i.e., the Udyog Aadhaar (UA) Portal (http://udyogaadhaar.gov.in) for online filing of Udyog Aadhaar Memorandum (UAM) by enterprises for registration located anywhere in the country. The UA portal is also accessible on mobile devices.”

“There is also an app mymsme”, he informed.

Earlier, welcoming the gathering, Girija Reddy, President of COWE India, said one of the biggest obstacles a women entrepreneur faces is access to marketing opportunities.

The trade fair is an attempt to provide a marketing platform to its members and other women entrepreneurs. Nearly, 150 women entrepreneurs have put up stalls.

Source: Business Line