MSMEs in Punjab are facing a six-pronged crisis, according to the India MSME Report 2012, prepared by the Kochi-based Institute of Small Enterprises and Development (ISED).
P M Mathew, director, ISED, sharing the report’s insights pertaining to MSMEs in Punjab, said the crises pertained to the policy side, a demonstration-induced crisis, a trade-induced crisis, a planning crisis, entrepreneurship crisis and a cultural crisis.
Listing out the crises, Mathew pointed out that scarcity of critical raw materials, the credit crunch, ‘migration’ of employment (owing to machines replacing humans) in manufacturing and services, decline in self-employment owing to lack of an entrepreneurship policy, and difficulties in getting start-ups off the ground are some of the problems that MSMEs are facing.
Blaming the states, Mathew said, states do not have their own plans. “They only plan to tap the Central government’s Plan funds. There is little or no serious planning at the state level. Even if there are plans, they are populist plans,” added Mathew. ISED has an annual national programme of stakeholder consultations in 20 centres in 18 states, under its India MSME Communication Programme.