Micro enterprises form a majority of MSMEs in the country and the government should give special attention to these small businesses, said Kalanidhi Veeraswamy, Member of Parliament from Chennai-North, while addressing the ET Make in India SME Regional Summit in Chennai on August 10.
“In India, there are about 6 crore 33 lakh MSMEs. But around 6 crore 30 lakh of these fall under micro industries and only about 3 lakh fall in the category of small and medium enterprises. I have urged the Union Government to form a separate ministry for micro industries because entrepreneurs in this category struggle a lot and need the most help,” he said while giving the keynote address.
The ET Make in India SME Regional Summit is a series of events held across India to bring together local MSMEs, policymakers, enablers and industry stakeholders in the respective regions. These summits aim to unravel opportunities, tackle challenges and foster knowledge-sharing and networking to propel the next phase of growth for Indian MSMEs.
The ET Make in India SME Regional Summit in Chennai focussed on discussing ways to improve the state’s manufacturing and export might. The keynote address was on “Doing Business in Tamil Nadu: How the Government Supports TN’s Trade and Industry”. The summit saw a full house that brought together a range of entrepreneurs, industrialists, policymakers and sectoral experts to discuss ways to strengthen the industrial ecosystem in the region.
Women entrepreneurs
The MP’s address ended with an interactive session where a number of attendees posed queries on the state government’s support to MSMEs. Answering one of the queries, Veeraswamy mentioned that Tamil Nadu has one of the highest number of women entrepreneurs in the country. “About 25% of our MSMEs are women entrepreneurs which, I feel, is very commendable. Tamil Nadu has the highest number of women participation in industrial employment. When we compare it w ..
Next on the agenda was a fireside chat with Gaurav Anshuman, General Manager, Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India Ltd, on “Unlocking Global Opportunities: The Role of ECGC in MSME Export Growth”. Anshuman explained to the audience how their insurance products help in diversifying the business. “There is a thumb rule that you cannot depend on one buyer alone. So if your entire business is stacked on one or limited buyers, you have a greater risk. There is always a need and scope for dive ..
Formalising MSMEs
After the insightful fireside chat, Ekambaram Ramasamy, Senior Advisor, FaMe TN, gave a special address that discussed Tamil Nadu’s industrial advantages. The government wants to register all MSMEs in a formalised form so that policies can be accordingly framed for them, he said. “98-99% of the MSMEs are micro. So the government mostly focuses on micro enterprises and to some extent small and medium enterprises,” he stated.
The sector is facing issues in areas like finance, infrastructure, technology and market access, said Ramasamy. On the aspect of finance, he stated that the government has brought in many support schemes. “One such scheme is the Tamil Nadu Credit Guarantee Scheme or TNCGS. It is a sub-scheme of the Government of India Credit Guarantee Scheme. Collateral-free loans are not easily available to MSMEs. Normally, the Government of India Credit Guarantee gives only 75% guarantee. Now the Tamil Nadu go ..
Elaborating further on the state government's vision for inclusive growth, he said empowering women has been central to their plans. “In all our schemes, we are trying to give participation to women. In the last three years, about 30,000 new entrepreneurs have benefited from the scheme of the state government, 40% of which are women,” he said.
Alluding to how the government has also been supporting small and medium enterprises to get additional funding for expansion of the SME exchange, ..
Manufacturing prowess
Next up was an exciting panel discussion that saw some of the who’s who of the manufacturing ecosystem discuss ways to further strengthen Tamil Nadu’s manufacturing capabilities.
Source Name : Economic Times