SMEs to meet today on 12th Plan manufacturing roadmap

Top Stories

»	Sensex, Nifty open 1 pc lower amid West Asia tensions, weak global cues
»	India clocks robust 7.7 pc GDP growth in 2025-26, Q4 growth at 7.8 pc
»	RBI keeps repo rate unchanged at 5.25 pc, maintains âNeutralâ stance
»	Crude oil prices fall over 1 pc as ceasefire hopes ease West Asia concerns
»	Forced labour import curbs: US proposes up to 12.5 pc tariff on 60 countries, including India

SME Times News Bureau | 16 May, 2012
"Take the plan to the states" is the new mantra of the Planning Commission to ensure successful implementation of the manufacturing component of the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17). Toward this, the Commission has roped in the Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME) to organise a stakeholder consultation on the plan component in Lucknow on May 16.

"This is for the first time that Indian planners have decided to engage stakeholders at the state level through a consultation process in a bid to ensure successful implementation of the manufacturing plan," said FISME president V.K. Agarwal.

The plan has outlined strategies for accelerating growth of manufacturing in India during the 12th Plan period and beyond. As the leading representative of Indian MSMEs, FISME was a member of the Steering Committee that provided overall guidance and strategic direction to the process of development of the plan, a FISME statement said.

"As a member of the steering committee, FISME took a leading role in emphasising that since the success of the Plan to deliver desired outcomes critically depended on implementation at the state level, the consultation process must engage states as well," Agarwal said.

"The steering committee and the Planning Commission found merit in the view and this stakeholder consultation is an outcome of that," he added.

The underlying objectives of the 12th Plan are the same as those outlined in the National Manufacturing Plan introduced in 2011 with the key goal being to give a boost to Indian manufacturing and increase its share in the national GDP to 25 percent by 2025 and create 100 million new jobs.

"It was felt that a new approach was needed as the share of Indian manufacturing has continued to languish at a low level of 16 percent of GDP despite the last two decades of high rates of growth following the economic liberalisation of 1991," Agarwal said.

In fact, the Plan document states: "In line with the new paradigm, a widely consultative and inclusive approach was adopted to prepare the manufacturing industry roadmap under the Twelfth Plan."

While outlining the immediate next steps for implementing the plan, the document said, among other things, "Take the plan to the States: Much of the implementation of the Manufacturing Plan will be in the States. Therefore, State governments, and stakeholders in the States must be
engaged."

"The new approach of wider stakeholder consultations to ensure more effective implementation is first being tried out in India's largest state, Uttar Pradesh, which is now lagging in industrialisation despite being one of the top industrial states in the past," the FISME president said.

FISME) traces its origin to 1967 when the National Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs (NAYE) was established to promote small industries. In the post-liberalisation era, NAYE along with eight state level associations formed FISME in 1995 to lead Indian SMEs in the new era of economic liberation and globalisation.