KOCHI:
Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), the principal financial institution engaged in the promotion, financing and development of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs),organised an outreach programme for strengthening Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises ecosystem in Kerala in collaboration with Development Commissioner – Ministry of MSME, Department of Financial Services – Ministry of Finance and Government of Kerala.
The main objective of the outreach programme is knowledge dissemination on digital platforms and to have closer cooperation with State Government of Kerala on MSME issues. On this occasion, Mohammad Mustafa, Chairman and Managing Director, SIDBI, said, “This initiative is a part of our SIDBI Vision 2.0 under which Mission Swavalamban is our umbrella initiative. The prime objective of the initiative is to gauge the expectation of MSME stakeholders, identify the good practices of the State and suggest State-specific schemes. As an outcome of the programme, good practices of various State policies would be enlisted and solutions to the problem statements would be mapped including good practices of other States. We expect greater participation by MSMEs in these programmes and urge them to make best use of these initiatives.”
This half-day outreach programme by SIDBI is based on recommendation of the expert committee on MSMEs headed by U.K. Sinha, former chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), for SIDBI to collaborate with State Governments to get MSME units from the State onto digital platforms such as PSBloansIn59minutes, listing on stock exchanges, e- commerce platforms etc. This is the 8 th outreach programme under the initiative.
Seven programmes have already been organised in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan & Telangana. Target audience of these programmesare officials from State Governments, banks, industry associations, Technical Consultancy Organizations (TCO), MSME and other relevant stakeholders.
The programme held in the State of Kerala witnessed huge participation from various stakeholders including senior officials of Government of Kerala, District Industries Centres, Reserve Bank of India, NABARD, banks, MSME development organizations, Industry Associations and MSMEs. Under the session on schemes for Ease of Access, sensitization programme on PSBLoansIn59Minutes, listing on stock exchanges, ecommerce platforms – Government e-Marketplace (GeM), Interest Subvention, Stand Up India, Udyami Mitra, Mission
Swavalamban, Prayas Scheme and other products of SIDBI were carried out. Session on State schemes in terms of schemes and expectations of State Government were taken by State Government officials.
The programme was chaired by Manoj Joshi, Additional Chief Secretary (Finance), Government of Kerala andattended by Reeny Ajith, Regional Director, Reserve Bank of India.Expectations of State government in terms of ease of access to credit and non-financial services were enlisted. The valued partners for the initiative are GeM, PSBLoansIn59Minutes, National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Dun & Bradstreet (D&B).
