From the special address by Shankar Lalwani, Member of Parliament, Indore, to an insightful keynote by Prakash Kumar, DMD, SIDBI, followed by an engaging panel discussion decoding the path forward for MSMEs in Madhya Pradesh, the sessions touched upon crucial aspects concerning the MSME industry.
Given that Indore has a host of small and medium businesses, such sessions enable the players in the ecosystem with insights that can empower them for their onward journey. The opening keynote from Prakash Kumar, DMD, SIDBI, detailed India’s aspirations as an economy. “If India has to achieve the $5 trillion economy dream, MSME as a sector has to deliver big,” he stated.
He further added how the lending process has become easier now for the MSME sector. “With the advent of new developments which are taking place mostly around the GST ecosystem, the lending practices have become very simplified,” Kumar added.
As part of his special address, Shankar Lalwani, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, stated the significance of the MSME sector. “After agriculture, the MSME sector provides employment to a large section of the population,” he said.
ET OnlineShankar Lalwani lauded the MSME sector for its contribution to India’s growth and the resilience shown by such businesses time and again.
Lalwani also added how the focus of the government is to increase MSME’s share in the economy to 50% by 2030. He lauded the sector for its contribution to India’s growth and the resilience shown by such businesses time and again.Observing how MSMEs have great potential to go global, Ravi Tyagi, CGM, SIDBI, noted that India has all the ingredients to become a big manufacturing economy. He also spoke of the significance of micro enterprises in the economy. “It is important that the micro enterprise sector rises up and becomes formalised. It’s very large, the numbers say 10 crore but if you add their family members, it’s as much as 30-40 crore,” Tyadi added.This was followed by a panel discussion that centred around conversations to empower MSMEs in MP for a competitive and sustainable India@100. Talking about how sustainability will play a big role, Ankur Phadnis, Founder, Feedify, said this is directly linked to innovation. “When a company becomes sustainable, it can drive innovation. Customers today are also aligning themselves to socially responsible businesses,” he stated.
Elaborating more on the innovation aspect, Mamta Bakliwal, Co-Founder & CTO, Empower Integrated Solutions, said it would play a key role in our aim to be a developed country. “We need to innovate to reach a state of a developed nation. Research is the only measure that will take us to that level,” she highlighted.
Bringing in the aspect of healthcare for MSMEs and how it is a significant space for India being sustainable and competitive, Akshat Chordia, Vice Chairman, CII Malwa Zone, and Managing Director, Rini Life Science, spoke of the many MSMEs registered in the sector. “MSMEs know the real pulse of Bharat. They can realise the potential of healthcare,” he said.
Chordia also drew attention to how there is a lot of skill advantage in this sector, and how quality healthcare practices in India lend it an advantage over western counterparts.
The concluding session saw Anjani Kumar Srivastava, GM, SIDBI, delve on MSME finance and SIDBI’s vision for a strong and vibrant ecosystem in Madhya Pradesh. “Considering that we have only one planet to live on, it’s our responsibility to take care of it,” he said, while talking about the industry body’s scheme to support social impact projects by MSMEs.
This was followed by an open house, which opened the floor for questions from the audience to Srivastava on loan requirements for businesses and the parameters that determine it for small businesses.
The 63 million MSMEs in the country form an important chunk of India’s economy and these events aim to cater to this key segment for a continual path of progress, development and evolution.
