MSME Ministry moots development plan

The MSME Ministry is expected to ready an indepth plan to revitalise the country’s micro, small and medium enterprises within six months, a sector that contributes almost 38 per cent to the country’s GDP and over 42 per cent to its overall exports.

“The Ministry is in the process of preparing a development strategy for the sector in consultation with all stake-holders. This is expected to be ready within a period of 6 months,” MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

The estimated contribution of manufacturing sector micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to GDP, during 2012-13, is 7.04 per cent. Taking into account the contribution of services sector MSME, which is estimated at 30.5 per cent during 2012-13, the share of MSME sector in GDP during 2012-13 is 37.54 per cent.

The share of MSME in India's total exports for the year 2013-14, has been estimated at 42.38 per cent. Presenting the maiden budget, Jaitley laid special thrust on promotion of start-ups and allocated Rs 10,000 crore for setting up a venture capital fund for the MSME sector.

Jaitley also proposed a technology centre network to promote innovation, entrepreneurship and agro-industry by setting up a fund with a corpus of Rs 200 crore.

Jaitley said an entrepreneur friendly ‘legal bankruptcy framework’ will be developed for SMEs to enable easy exit. A nationwide ‘District level Incubation and Accelerator Programme’ would be taken up.