The government has initiated several measures to provide technology, training and finance to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), according to MSME Secretary Anup K Pujari. The sector is the single largest contributor to India’s gross domestic product and the second Largest provider of employment. In an interview with ET’s Prabha Raghavan on the sidelines of CII’s 8th National Cluster Summit in Delhi, Pujari talks about the probLems ailing the sector and what the government is doing to address them. Edited excerpts:
What are the biggest challenges facing the MSME sector?
There are four issues. First is finance, second is marketing, third s technology and the fourth is infrastructure. On the infrastructure side, there is very little I can do in the short run. But, for the rest of the issues, there are different types of activity that are being taken.
How are you leveraging the `Make in India’ initiative?
We are trying to figure out that if [micro and small enterprises] have a problem regarding access to finance, what can be done. On September 18, we had come out with a simple, one-page registration system (the Udyog Aadhaar Memorandum). Even if you don’t have an Aadhaar card, you can still get registration on this. On acquisition of technology, training, handholding…there are several schemes as per which action is being taken.
What is the MSME sector’s involvement in `Startup India’?
Unless we try to bring in a culture of respecting failure, it will be very difficult. Ghar mein agar hum sab pita-maata hoke, jo fail bhi ho jaaye, usko agar hum stigmatise naa karein (If at home itself, we don’t stigmatise failure), that’ll be one way of really encouraging startups in this country. I communicate this wherever I go.
What initiatives has the ministry planned to improve ease of doing business in the MSME sector?
Apart from the Udyog Aadhaar Memorandum, several other things are in the pile. Now, the Parliament is going to be in session, so it would not be correct on my part to talk about that. The minister will speak about this at the appropriate time. But, there is work going on to simplify processes.
What are the plans to boost MSME activity in states?
The government of India only sets the policy. The implementation is always by the state governments. So, unless the state governments are on board, we can’t do anything. In every stage, we are in consultation with them, we take their views, we insist that they must have a good understanding of what we are doing and we also take their inputs into account.
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