Government Plans to focus on MSMEs to make India Atmanirbhar: Nitin Gadkari

Chennai: " The biggest mission for the Indian Government is the eradication of poverty focusing on MSMEs as the backbone of the Indian economy;" said Nitin Gadkari, Minister for MSME, Road Transport and Highways, on December 29.

In the FICCI’s 93rd Annual General Convention, pointing out the virtual session ‘Role of MSME’s in Atmanirbhar Bharat’, Gadkari stated that GOI aims to create employment and provide facilities to villages and small industries in order to help them grow. Also he added that the government is going to make a move to recognising and facilitating rural entrepreneurs.

Sangita Reddy, Former President, FICCI underlined that "the life disordering caused by Covid-19, has created an opportunity for Indian MSMEs to integrate with the global value chains;" as per a press release.

"As large companies continue to adopt new technologies of automation, AI, IoT and 3D Printing, we need to ensure that our MSMEs are not left behind and seamlessly integrate these technologies in their processes to compete globally;" she added.

Harshpati Singhania, past president of FICCI, expressed that "to obtain the goals of Atmanirbhar Bharat, it is needed to look at rural India with a totally new vision, and link it with urban India."

“MSMEs contributes 30 per cent to India’s GDP, 48 per cent in export and till now, 11 crore jobs have been created by the MSME sector,” added Gadkari. To make an Atmanirbhar India, the focus will be on increasing the share of the manufacturing sector from 24-26 per cent of GDP to 30 per cent.

Highlighting the special focus on MSME sector by the government of India, Gadkari said that "there is a plan to increase the total turnover of Indian rural industry to Rs two lakh crore from current Rs 80 thousand crores in the next two years."

He added that the government is focusing on rural industries along with socially and economically backward areas, while speaking about rural industries and Khadi Gram Udyog,
“We want to focus on rural industry for gaining and creating employment potential and growth which is a potential route to the eradication of poverty, is our mission,” he said.

In the same event, Nitin Gadkari also launched the FICCI ‘MSME Tool Kit’, which its aim is to become an online platform where aspiring and existing entrepreneurs could learn about business running; it will provide all the details to entrepreneurs, from planning and selecting the right business to sustainable growth of the business. The information will be shared with them in form of DIY videos, webinars’ recordings, external links, in-house content, and articles.