MSMEs

The Prime Minister said “The MSME sector is of vital importance to our national economy. It accounts for 8 per cent of the country’s GDP, 45 per cent of its manufactured output and 43 per cent of our exports. It provides employment to over 10 crore people. Our Government has always believed that strong performance of this sector is necessary for us to achieve the objective of rapid and inclusive growth. It is a matter of considerable satisfaction for all of us that the MSME sector has grown at a healthy rate of 10 per cent in recent years.” To promote the growth of the MSME sector the Prime Minister said that additional measures were announced in the Budget for the Financial Year 2013-14. These included continuation of non-tax benefits available for MSMEs for three years even after an enterprise graduated to a higher category. Fifteen additional tool rooms are being set up in the country with World Bank assistance to facilitate skill development and promotion of new technologies in the MSME sector. Regeneration of traditional industries is being given focused attention and this is expected to benefit 4 lakh artisans engaged in these activities.  Another recent initiative to assist the MSME sector is the setting up of the ‘India Inclusive Innovation Fund’ (IIIF) for promoting grass-root level innovation. The Prime Minister laid emphasis on the need for promoting exports from the MSME sector and said “only a small fraction of enterprises today has the skills, risk appetite and resources to avail of the opportunities offered by processes of globalization. We need to change this state of affairs. I am happy that the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises has been taking steps to promote bilateral cooperation with other countries in the MSME sector and giving our enterprises exposure to international markets and foreign technologies.