MSME’s : Powerhouses of Country’s Economic Growth, MSME’s to be key drivers of Prime Minister’s vision of ‘ Make in India’

 

MSME’ s are the backbone of India’s Economy : Banmali Agrawala, A significant time for the Indian Industry and MSME’s will play a key role in India’s growth story: Sudhir Mehta, Landscape of opportunities available for MSME’s in India’s Defence Sector : A K Arora, CII MSME Summit deliberates on Leveraging Finance &Technology for Next Level Growth

 

MUMBAI, (GNI): MSME’s play a vital role in contribution to the economic growth of the country and job creation, the State Government is fully committed to extending all round support to MSME’s said Mr Subhash Desai, Industries Minister of Maharashtra while delivering a special address during the CII MSME Summit. He announced that recently the State government passed a specific resolution to reserve 20% plots in every industrial estate for MSMEs. A decision has been taken for the creation of readymade units in these areas to enable startups and MSMEs to readily occupy and immediately start production. He further added that this initiative would be kick started in Northern Maharashtra, Nashik, Nagpur, Pimpri – Chinchwad and Aurangabad.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) WR in partnership with the Government of Maharashtraorganized “CII MSME Summit” here today in Pune. CII Western Region has undertaken several initiatives to strengthen the MSME segment by organizing interactive platforms such as workshops, Factory visits, buyer- seller meets and recognizing excellence through awards.

He cited an example of his recent trip to the Korean province of Gyeonggi where spaces have been reserved for small units wherein entrepreneurs can occupy these units for a couple of months to develop their products and the government extends full support in terms of funding, technological expertise, infrastructure and marketing support until they are ready to move out on their own. He called for the set-up of similar units in the state and urged larger industry players and CII to handhold MSMEs in their journey to achieve growth. He pointed out that nearly 70% micro and small enterprises find it difficult to sustain after the first year. The venture capital fund started together with the support of SIDBI has been a boon for MSME’s in providing ready funding and there are also plans for a scale up.

Talking about Maharashtra’s rich history in defence, he said that it was an ideal place to invite defence related manufacturing activities. With this in mind, places like Jejuri & DMIC Shendra are being specifically developed to house industrial estates catering to defence manufacturing activities. He also said that the State government is working together with DIPP and the defence sector on a plan to set up testing facilities catering to the defence sector and clusters are being developed for the same. The Government wants to invite larger industries to take the lead in such initiatives which will also pull ancillary industries to join in and create an ecosytem. He also spoke about the Government’s plans to develop 10 textile parks in the state primarily in cotton growing regions like Northern Maharashtra, Vidarbha and Marathwada. Citing the success of the textile park at Amravati where an ecosystem of large industries co exits with smaller players, he pointed out that this initiative would ensure that there would be value addition to the cotton production in the state along the entire value chain from farm-fabric-fashion route.

Mr Martin Rama, Chief Economist-South Asia, World Bank released a special report titled “South Asia’s turn: Policies to Boost Competitiveness and Create the Next Export Powerhouse.” in the presence of the Hon’ble Minister for Industries. He also presented interesting case studies on Automobile and Electronics Sectors.

India is uniquely positioned to be a global manufacturing hub and MSME’s have a key role to play said,  Banmali Agrawala, Chairman, CII WR MSME Summit & President and CEO, GE South Asia. He also cited examples of how his own company has doubled its manufacturing output in India and its plants are not only meeting domestic demand but also exporting to the ASEAN region. He pointed out that to be globally competitive, MSME’s need to focus on improving productivity, upgrading skills and training of workforce.  He also stated that since the launch of the first edition of the summit, there has been a continuous engagement and dialogue with MSMEs. The Buyer Seller meet was an outcome of this and has been successfully executed across most regions in the state. These meets have resulted in registration of several participating companies as vendors. CII organized Vendor Development Programs with Naval Dockyard which saw five SME’s being registered as vendors and there are more such success stories.

Air Commodore, AK Arora, 9BRD India Air Force in his address said that MSME’s play a crucial role in their contribution to the Defence Sector. He further stated that since Independence, Industry has been given a huge push and the size and role of MSMEs in the Defence sector has grown ever since. The Defence sector has a varied requirement of equipment manufacturing and that currently only 30-40 % of this requirement is being met indigenously. Here MSME’s have a huge opportunity with a clear focus on Indigenous development and reducing the dependence on imports. Mr Arora said that on one hand the Defence sector faces many challenges as a buyer while dealing with MSME’s such as transparency, timely payments, certification, best practices and on the other hand MSMEs are wary of the stringent rules & regulatory framework while doing business with this sector. Having said this, he assured that with the Government opening up the Defence sector, MSME’s are being given preference over larger companies and that information is readily available to MSMEs in form of manuals, LIDP(Long Term Integrated Development Plan) and RFI’s and RFP’s to enable Ease of Doing Business. He urged MSME’s to make good use of this opportunity.

Sudhir Mehta, Chairman, CII (WR) & Chairman & Managing Director, Pinnacle Industries Ltd in his address said that this is a historic time for India with the Government taking bold economic measures. He welcomed the recently announced rate cuts and said that this significant decision taken by the Government would reduce the borrowing cost for MSME’s and enable them to be more globally competitive. Reiterating that CII has been a strong partner in hand holding MSME’s at every stage of their growth, he spoke on few key initiatives that have been started by CII namely : the CII – Avantha Centre for Competitiveness with a national footprint is a single point of reference for SME development; The CII SME Finance Facilitation Centre serves as a one- stop- shop, aggregating financing options from multiple large financial institutions; Mentoring and hand holding of MSME’s by experienced CEO’s from large organizations through the CII Startup Mentorship circle. He also announced that CII plans to start an SME Compliance & Advisory services for MSME’s.

Acknowledging the contribution of the MSME sector to the country’s growth Mr Milon Nag, Co-Chairman, CII MSME Council & Chairman and Managing Director, K K Nag Pvt Ltd said that at the National level, the MSME Council provides a bouquet of services to MSME’s. He spoke on the SME Policy Dialogue Series which engages MSME’s in a meaningful dialogue with all stakeholders and the outcome of these discussions is brought out in the form on Whitepapers which is circulated to the Government. In the past such Dialogues have been held on topics like GST, EODB, Public Policy & Reforms. Speaking on the success achieved by the Finance Facilitation Centre, he said that Rs 763 Crore worth of loans have been processed successfully since its inception and this year alone saw loans worth Rs 300 Crores being processed. He pointed out the SME Technology Facility Centre was launched in Delhi recently to enable SME’s gain access to technological inputs through various technology partners and encouraged SME’s to avail of the services provided by the Centre. He also acknowledged the unflinching support extended by the Ministry to all CII initiatives at all times.

The panel discussion on “Technology Makeover – Adopting technology for Seamless Integration” highlighted the need for adoption of Technology in different aspects that will help the MSME industry sustain growth and compete with players in the global markets.

The session on ‘MSME Bankers Meets” saw both bankers and lenders coming together to discuss financing for strengthening MSMEs through various available and new schemes to be introduced.

Buyer-Seller Meets were organized in the following sectors: Defence & Aerospace; Public Sector Enterprises and large corporates to connect buyers from public sector and private corporate sector to prospective MSME vendors.ends