Few Insights In MSME Sector #GrowingBusinessesTogether #pebbleinwaterswrites

Let's start with some basic facts. MSME is a Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise sector in India that is growing at a tremendously fast pace in India and across the globe. There is a very clear-cut distinction in terms of investment and turnover prescribed by the Ministry of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises. 

Source: MSME.gov.in

Till 30 June 2020, the number of registered MSMEs was 1,02,28,484 out of which the count for Micro, Small, and Medium is 8957853, 1220782, and 49849 respectively. The top 3 states with a tally of 1978485, 1106387, and 970237 were Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh is the next in the order with a count of 966503. Given below is the yearwise status of budget allocated versus budget utilized. 

Source: MSME.gov.in

This website and especially the dashboard (pic below) is worth visiting in case any valuable information is required related to the MSME sector in India and various valued initiatives being taken by the Government of India.

Source: msme.gov.in

My first good informative session about MSME initiatives happened way back in 2014 when I got an invite for the inauguration of the first MSME-Samsung Technical School in Delhi. This initiative was taken by the Ministry of MSME and Samsung joining hands to set up Technical Schools at MSME Technology Centres across India. Initially, 10 MSME-Samsung Technical Schools were to be wet up in various locations across India. The purpose was to create a pool of talented workforce with hands-on experience. This was in August 2014. 

Speaking on the occasion, the Minister of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises, Kalraj Mishra said,

“The MSME Sector employs maximum number of people in India next to Agriculture and to meet skilled manpower requirement in the sector, the Ministry of MSME is committed creating industry responsive manpower by giving thrust on employable skills and vocational training in partnership with Industry. Various field establishments under the Ministry are regularly conducting skill development training programmes through which we have trained more than 6,00,000 youth during the previous year. I hope that this joint initiative of the Ministry of MSME and Samsung would be able to train approx. 10,000 youth per year who would have the opportunity to find placement in various appliances manufacturing organisations including Samsung. I also believe that many of them can also establish their own enterprises and Service Centre for repairing & maintenance of electrical & electronics goods”.

In the same year, in November, Samsung and the Ministry of MSME came out with another great initiative to train youth in various vocational skills from underprivileged communities and gradually equip them to seek job opportunities in the fast-growing consumer electronics manufacturing and service sector.

In May 2015, Samsung Electronics India and the Ministry of MSME launched Samsung Digital Academy. Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister for MSME, Kalraj Mishra, said, 

“The Ministry of MSME continuously looks to provide opportunities to the country’s youth to access current developments across various fields. Industry collaborations allow the Ministry of MSME to strengthen its skill development courses by providing up-to-date, industry-relevant training. This innovative collaboration with Samsung will help youth learn to develop digital content for next-generation ecosystems. As MSME skill development programs reach youth from all socio-economic strata, this program will also help bridge the digital divide.”

 In the same month, Samsung India expanded its Skill Development initiatives by setting up its 18th Technical School in Kerala. By then, more than 3,000 students had graduated from various Samsung Technical Schools across India since mid-2014.

In December 2015, I got an opportunity to attend the launch of Sanjay Shah's book on Business Management for the MSME segment. This book was forwarded by Dr. Radhakrishnan Pillai and was well appreciated by the Ministry of MSME (including union minister Kalraj Mishra), Charted Accountants, and everybody connected to the MSME ecosystem.

It was the NASSCOM SMB conference on"Growing your Business - Digital as a Differentiator" on 16th December 2015 that presented superb insights on the value of going digital and how it can become a catalyst to growth and sustenance. 

The emergence of the presence of woman power in the MSME sector was well visible in 2016 while attending a powerful event in September 2016 organized by Womania a - for the women by the women online transportation startup launching Team up 2016 in association with the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME), Government of India. The purpose was to bring together the key elements of India's startup ecosystem to discuss, exchange ideas and strategies to facilitate entrepreneurial initiatives.

In October 2016, YES Bank launched YES TRANSACT: InvoiceXpress - Digital Working Capital Management for MSME and Corporate business. It was an efficient and secure online platform to accelerate collections and improve the working capital cycle which is the most crucial component for SMEs.

For all these years CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) has been doing great efforts in helping and educating SMEs in various fields through events, workshops, and seminars to help them to learn, grow and sustain. For instance, a timely session on GST Implications on MSMEs and technological solutions to counter the challenges were very useful for the attendees from the SME sector. Similarly, the launch of the SME Industry Group proved to be quite useful.

Dr. Subho Ray, President of IAMAI said in 2018 “Digital technologies can bring in efficiency and economic scaling up in the critical social sectors. Budget 2018 gives recognition to the emerging sectors like Edutech, Agritech, Healthtech in India and is an encouragement for Digital India. 372 basic business reform actions identified for improving ease of doing business in India is a positive step.” 

While giving this statement, he had a special focus on SMEs.

The Hi-Tech Robotics Systemz Limited came into the limelight in February 2018 with an announcement of providing its technology-Novus Aware to Daimler India Commercial Vehicle to help to reduce the number of accidents on Indian roads. The company had won various awards and accolades including the coveted National Award for being the most innovative MSME and the Most Innovative Company by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) in 2017 and with Safety Technology Award 2017 by Autotech Review. It was also named as Top Artificial Intelligence companies by Gartner. This was a great showcase of an SME in innovation, technology, and AI (Artificial Intelligence). 

The news in March 2018 was a big boost for the MSME sector in North East. Union Cabinet approved the North East Industrial Development Scheme to boost development in the Northeast. With a financial outlay of Rs, 3000 crores up to March 2020, the NEIDS intended to incentivize the MSME sector in the North East with a big thrust to job creation.

Are you aware of CIMSME? It's Confederation of Indian Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise. You must visit this site. It is here that I learned June 27th is celebrated as World MSME Day. In 2018, it was celebrated in Chennai and the slogan that year was 'Small Business, Big Impact.' MSME Day is celebrated to highlight the strong contribution of MSMEs worldwide towards livelihoods, communities, and economies. The focus also stays on the need to support MSMEs towards their success. It is done by raising public awareness about the importance of MSMEs to economical growth and international development. It was amazing to know MSMEs make up more than 90% of the world's economy. Also, MSMEs account for more than 70% of all jobs worldwide. In 2018 there were more than 500 million MSMEs in the world.

It proves MSMEs are major job providers and are potential catalysts for the growth of any economy in the world. Most of the innovation and creativity emerge in MSMEs. Having said that, MSMEs need help in capacity building and financial services to gain their full potential. It becomes very important for governments to encourage informal MSMEs to become part of the formal economy. They also need a good understanding of sustainable and responsible business practices. It is important to ensure no larger businesses become a threat to MSME's growth keeping in mind that MSMEs don't have enough scope and leverage to benefit from the economies of scale, political benefits, or ease of access to capital. Plus, MSMEs should get relaxation in standards and regulations.

In this context, it was good to see a press release from the Government of India titled - Relaxing Lending Norms to MSMEs.

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