The government is considering higher financial assistance to existing clusters of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) up to 80% of their financial requirements under the 11th Five-Year Plan, according to small-scale industries secretary Chandrapal. At a SME cluster conclave organised by CII recently, the secretary said the financial assistance will be provided under the MSME cluster development programme for technology upgradation and to meet financial gaps.

To enable MSMEs become competitive, the government is proposing a pool of consultants under its National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme. The consultants would be deployed with a cluster of 8-10 companies for a period of one to one-and-a-half years, a ministry official said. The cost of the consultants will be borne by the government.

Participating in the conclave, Unido Regional Representative in India Philippe Scholtes pointed out that the Unido had proposed a five-year country strategy, of which cluster development would be an integral part along with programmes aimed at upgrading technological capability and building social capital in the country’s industrial sector. He said Unido was exploring new applications of industrial cluster-based approaches focusing on corporate social responsibility and poverty alleviation in micro enterprises.

NMCC official Rajeev Ranjan stated that the national strategy for manufacturing drawn up by NMCC had been accepted by the government for implementation and enabling SMEs to achieve competitiveness was one of the key elements of the strategy. He indicated the strategy had identified a number of areas for priority action such as textiles and garments, food processing, IT hardware and electronics, leather and footwear, automobiles and auto components, and chemicals and petrochemicals including pharma.

Source: TIMES NEWS NETWORK