New Era for SMEs: Innovative Policies To Tap Emerging Business Opportunities

From left to right: Jayant Ghate, Advisor, WTC, S V Joshi, Chairman, Nichrome, Anant Sardeshmukh, Director General, MCCIA, Rajeev Ranadive, President, Automotive Robotics, M S Unnikrishnan, CEO & MD, Thermax, and Sadashiv Survase, GM, District Industries Centre, Pune, at Business Standard Smart Business in Pune on 22nd April 2014, in association with AIAI, MCCIA and World Trade Centre, Mumbai.

Small and medium enterprises may well be getting a red carpet treatment from the Central and State Government but the sector continues to see challenges, said industry players.
 

A recent event namely Business Standard Smart Business in association with World Trade Centre , AIAI & MCCIA , on ‘New Era for SMEs innovative policies to tap emerging business opportunities’ ,covered the concerns that the SME segment is dealing with and how they are innovating and readying themselves for global opportunity.

Industry representatives attending the conference and industry association agreed that it is now the time for implementation of the policies & initiatives that the Government has come up with and make sure that SMEs continue to contribute towards the growth of the economy.

M S Unnikrishnan believes that the future is all about SMEs but what will sustain the growth is innovation. “India will move in the German way of industrialisation in manufacturing rather than the Chinese or North American way. That means small entrepreneurs will be creating the SME and will constitute 80-85 per cent of the total manufacturing for the country,” he added.

According to Survase, SME’s contribution to GDP has been about 35 percent; share in exports about 40 percent, and employment generation around 85 percent. There are more than 30 lakh SMEs in India with over 300,000 in Maharashtra.
“We want to encourage SME growth and the GoM has been taking steps to achieve the same with several policy level initiatives. For instance, 40 to 90 percent of capital investment is to be refunded from Government. A separate SEZ and EoU policies, and other policies on biotech etc. are in the offing,” said Survase.

But industry representatives and association body feel that a lot of push is still required. “What we want is a clean business environment and policies, especially around taxation. Also, regulatory hurdles need to be reduced,” said Joshi.

Sardeshmukh added that it is time for MCCAI to take government initiatives to the SMEs & create awareness. “We think competitiveness will come not only from these schemes but also from adoption of technology & innovation. Since use of technology is expensive, the Government needs to give Sops in the nature of tax benefits for SMEs. And should also look at easing the credit availability mechanisms,” he added.

The conference also highlighted the need for debate and discussion among industry players, associations and the Government so that the right kinds of policies are brought in. As Survase said, Maharashtra needs to create 20 lakh jobs and supporting the SMEs will be crucial for this.