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Experts call for revolutionary steps to support MSMEs at CII MSME Conclave
Need to strengthen intermediaries – CII
NewZNew (Chandigarh) : “The three crore Indian MSMEs have an extraordinary opportunity to contribute significantly to the national flagship programmes of the Central Govt viz the Smart Cities, Make in India, Clean Ganga, skill India and Digital India campaign provided they focus on Research & Development (R&D), technology upgradation, Patents, Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and modernisation, emphasised Dr H Purushotham, Chairman & Managing Director, National Research Development Corporation (NRCD) while addressing the MSME CONCLAVE organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to Facilitate Financing & Enhancing Competitiveness of the MSMEs of the region at CII NR Headquarters in sector 31 A, here today.
“NRDC is fully committed to provide all possible assistance to promote, develop, and to commercialise indigenously developed technologies by MSMEs in partnership with universities, R&D Institutes & individual inventors etc as also upgrade their technologies. With our support, it is easier of the MSMEs to get loans from banks easily and at cheaper rates”, he informed.
“It is highly critical for the Indian beleaguered MSMEs which contribute 8% of national GDP, 45% of Manufacturing, 40% of exports, produce more than 6000 Products and provide employment to about 7 Crore people to invest in R&D, Patents, and Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) in order to sustain in the long run”, he further added.
“NRDC is all for MSMEs in this regard and we are devoted to provide all assistance in Patent landscaping, Licensing, IP search, Assessment & Valuation and other drafting & filing services which the MSMEs can benefit from. We have already signed over 5000 technology license agreements so far and licenced over 2000 technologies for commercialization”, he informed.
“Though MSMEs are a key part of the Indian industrial ecosystem, constituting 95% of the total no of industrial units in the country, still it is unfortunate and shocking that 20,000 MSME entrepreneurs commit suicide every year. This is mainly due to insolvency & bankruptcy”, lamented Mr Jyoti P Gadia, Managing Director, Resurgent India Ltd.
“I have seen that in more cases than one, due to the dysfunctional insolvency and bankruptcy system in India for SMEs, it deprives the entrepreneur of an honorable exit nor does it give him a second chance to re-establish his business of he fails”, he added quoting Mr Bibek Debroy, noted economist.
“The top leadership of the country is very much committed to provide funds to MSMEs and the MSMEs are ready too, but the key reason for the plight of MSMEs is the intermediaries, i.e the banks and the financial institutions. Hence it is imperative and urgent to strengthen them with more powers, and encourage them to assist MSMEs. There is a need to strengthen the Credit Monitoring Cell under Ministry of MSMEs to work with the banking ecosystem for timely evaluation and release of credit to MSMEs under various schemes as well as under general credit”, he added.
“Since 95 % of the MSMEs are concentrated in only 30 industries, it is high time for the government to come out with specific packages just for these 30 industries with complete details on the documents required, eligibility criterion etc available well in advance. In short a standardized DPR should be pre-approved. If an MSME fulfills all the criteria, it could approach banks for financial assistance and get it easily”, he informed.
Experts also called for setting up a Central Repository which would collate all the information which the MSMEs has submitted to various authorities online like during filing of service tax, TDS, income tax, etc. The lender could approach the repository and seek any information that is required from time to time. This would save MSMEs a whole lot of harassment and time wastage.
Capt Alok Sharma, Chairman, CII NR Committee on MSMEs, & CEO, Forge (India) Pvt Ltd shared that “Though MSMEs are said to be backbone of India’s economy, however the y ar effacing some major concerns like difficulty in obtaining finance, Limiting regulatory policies, Lack of modern affordable technology, Lack of basic infrastructure facilities, absence of exclusive marketing platforms, inflexible labour laws and availability of affordable skilled labour. CII calls for developing a specialized task force on core manufacturing sectors to develop and implement revival packages for MSMEs, to bring out schemes to obtain credit without complex collaterals at reasonable interest rates, ease labour laws, encourage clusters financing, implement GST and enhance ease of doing business”.