Niti Aayog working on to improve India's penetration into global value chains for MSMEs' growth

New Delhi: Niti Aayog is working on a programme to improve India's penetration into global value chains for growth of domestic micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), CEO of the government think-tank B V R Subrahmanyam said on Wednesday.

Observing that MSMEs are more affected by regulations than large companies, he said the prime minister has taken a major step towards deregulation and a task force under the cabinet secretary is working on it.

Subrahmanyam was addressing a gathering after launching 'the Digital Excellence for Growth and Enterprise', or 'Dx-EDGE', a platform to empower MSMEs with the tools, knowledge and ecosystem needed to become future-ready, competitive and resilient.

Dx-EDGE is a national initiative spearheaded by CII with the support of NITI Frontier Tech Hub (NITI FTH) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to drive digital transformation across India's MSMEs.

The Niti Aayog CEO further said it is a fact that some of the big manufacturers have moved to India, and cited the example of mobile phones, terming it as a success story of the PLI (production linked incentive) initiatives.

The other side of the story is, he said, that 95 per cent of what goes into mobile phone manufacturing is being imported.

"...we are working on to get the ecosystem to India. Niti is working on a programme to improve India's penetration of global value chains. To penetrate into global value chains, you need to have the ecosystem here, which means the intermediate routes. They are not final products. They go into some other product. Bulk of global manufacturing is of intermediate products. And who makes these intermediate products, largely MSMEs," Subrahmanyam said.

He also said the CII and NITI Frontier Tech Hub Dx-EDGE platform marks a transformative leap in India's digital journey, designed to empower MSMEs with cutting-edge technology and digital mastery.

By establishing a nationwide network of digital transformation facilitation centres, this initiative democratises access to skills and innovation, enabling MSMEs to scale sustainably, enhance global competitiveness, and play a pivotal role in realizing the Viksit Bharat vision, Subrahmanyam said.

Speaking on the occassion, S C L Das, Secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, said that frontier tech, digitalisation and technology have become a necessity to survive the global headwinds and emerging challenges and grow to become a developed nation.

He said that the government has been consistently providing enablers aligned with the national vision of Visit Bharat.

The secretary said that MSMEs have to be at the centre of the journey towards domestic growth, growth of exports, adaptability for climate change, for having the required resilience and technological growth.

Talking about Dx-EDGE, Das said that it is a significant and novel step in the right direction, which has been designed the right way, with Public-Private-Academia Partnership (PPAP).

He said that this particular design approach is going to be the key factor towards its success.

Debjani Ghosh, Distinguished Fellow, NITI Aayog and Chief Architect, NITI FTH, said that future-proofing MSMEs through digital adoption is no longer a luxury – it's a necessity for realising the Viksit Bharat goal.

"With Dx-EDGE, we are building an exciting ecosystem-led approach to empower MSMEs to embrace technology, strengthen resilience and thrive in an increasingly digital world. This initiative is a key pillar of NITI Frontier Tech Hub's vision to accelerate India's transformation into a frontier tech nation, ensuring that no enterprise is left behind in the digital revolution," she said.

T G Sitharam, Chairman, AICTE, noted that more and more youth are entering the workforce and underlined the need to create jobs. Underlining India's strength in STEM education, he said that India has delivered engineering and management education to the world.

CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee underlined the significance of MSMEs in the Indian economy and noted that this initiative, Dx-EDGE, will help bridge the gap in technology adoption in the segment.