To empower the micro and small enterprises (MSEs) through wider application of ICT (information and communication technology), the state MSME department has extended its help to the MSEs for developing their websites.
The department has asked all the industry associations to identify the MSEs, which did not have their websites.
"The websites will be developed and any specific problems will be solved by the engineering students willing to do the summer projects," said Panchanan Dash, secretary, MSME department at a seminar on Empowering SMEs through ICT intervention organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
A committee has been set up with representatives from the MSME department, Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) and Techpedia, an initiative at SRISTI that aims at solving the problems of micro, small and medium enterprises, to discuss the IT related problems of the MSEs. The committee will examine the requests of the entrepreneurs for developing the websites. Odisha has about 1.5 million MSMEs, generating about three million jobs. Odisha ranks among the top ten states in the country in terms of number of MSME units. Others in the top ten list are Uttar Pradesh (11.24 per cent), West Bengal (10.47 per cent), Tamil Nadu (9.16 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (7.50 per cent), Maharashtra (7.27 per cent), Gujarat (6.55 per cent), Kerala (6.51 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (5.79 per cent), and Karnataka (5.60 per cent).
About 74 per cent of the MSMEs in Odisha are located in rural areas compared to 54 per cent at the national level.
Stating that the awareness among the MSMEs on various schemes and programmes is very low, Dash said that assistance availed by Odisha MSMEs under various schemes is very low compared to Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, etc.
Between April and October, the department has paid about Rs 1 crore as VAT reimbursement, he added.
