Implemented by The Energy Resource Institute, the scheme aims to facilitate capacity building programmes
Engineering units in Mohali, Panchkula and Chandigarh (MPC) are looking to gain from a Business Development Service (BDS) project being implemented in the MPC cluster by The Energy Resource Institute (TERI).
The BDS project aims to facilitate capacity building programmes for workers of the units in various machining skills, energy efficiency studies, capacity building of local industry associations, information dissemination workshops, application of available government schemes and visits to progressive clusters.
The MPC cluster consists of some 2,600 units in light engineering industries such as machining, sheet metal components (including ancillaries of railways and tractor industries), fastener manufacturing and steel fabrication.
Upinder S Dhingra, a research associate at TERI, said small and medium units were finding it difficult to hire quality BDS providers and this was hurting their efficiency. However, with the induction of the MPC engineering cluster under the BDS project, MSME units were looking to develop through professional services.
The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is implementing a World Bank project aided by development agencies from Germany and Britain – ‘Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Financing & Development Project – Business Development Services’ in 15 MSME clusters.
Mohali-Panchkula-Chandigarh is one of the engineering clusters identified under the World Bank project and TERI is executing the project in this cluster. The project objective is to bridge the gap between service providers and MSME units and enable the latter to develop through professional services.
The three-year project is in its second year of implementation. Under the project more than 30 workers and 40 unemployed youth have been trained in various operations of CNC machines. Another 150 workers are to be trained this year on various machining operations.
TERI through local service providers has also conducted pilot energy audits in four manufacturing units that were identified for this purpose by industry associations in the MPC cluster. The improvements suggested by the energy audits reduced electrical energy consumption by the four units by up to 20 per cent, and thermal energy consumption by 7 per cent.
TERI has identified eight units in the engineering cluster, which would further be chosen for vendor development in collaboration with local OEMs. Marketing and common branding of cluster products will be undertaken.
Apart from this, SPVs (Special Purpose Vehicles) for lean manufacturing and quality improvement in MSMEs are also to be created. The activities carried out under this project are only on a pilot basis and there exists a lot of potential for scaling them up, said Dhingra.
