Acknowledging the MSME sector as a backbone of Indian economy, Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) Nitin Gadkari said that the sector plays a huge role in generating employment. Gadkari affirmed that in order to make the sector more accessible, the Government is planning to develop a portal for creating a marketplace like Alibaba where all stakeholders from India’s MSME sector can find the demand and supply inputs. Presently, MSME contributes to 29% of India’s GDP and will soon surpass 50 per cent in next five years. Gadkari also said that the employment in the MSME sector is set to increase to 15 crore from around 11 crore at present.
Addressing the International SME convention, Gadkari maintained, “We are going to open a new website, the name of it would be ‘Bank of ideas, innovation and research’, which will be open for suggestion from the sector. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of making India a US $ 5 trillion economy can only be fulfilled by ensuring the growth of the MSME sector in the county. He also talked about the need for research and innovation in the MSME sector and said collaborating with global entities will bring in the latest technology in the sector. He also handed out awards to selected 100 SMEs from 34,011 nominations.
The Government is also claiming providing better credit facility, technology upgradation, and skilling to boost the entire MSME ecosystem in India. “About 5.45 lakh micro enterprises have been assisted with a margin money subsidy of Rs.12,074.04 crore, providing employment opportunities to an estimated 45.22 lakh persons since the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) inception till March this year,” he added.
