Formation of task force yet to be finalised: MSME Minister

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Saurabh Gupta | 09 Jul, 2014
On the lines of previous government now Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is planning to form a task force for the revival of Micro, small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector. Union Minister of MSME, Kalraj Mishra has informed that his government's promise to set up a task force to review and revive the MSME Sector is yet to be finalised.

The President of India in his address on 9th June, 2014 to the First Session of Both Houses of Parliament after the elections to the 16th Lok Sabha mentioned that the Government will set up a task force to review and revive the MSME Sector..."The composition of the task force is yet to be finalised by the Government," informed Mishra in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

However, the last government had also constituted a MSME task force, under the Chairmanship of TK Nair, when UPA II was formed in 2009.

In his written reply Mishra further mentioned that for the overall benefit and sustainable development of handloom sector, the Ministry of Textiles, through various schemes and programmes, has adopted focused, flexible and holistic approach to enable weavers to meet the challenges of global and domestic market, facilitate marketing of handloom products, infrastructure development, brand building and empowerment of weavers by organising them under self help groups.

The Government has adopted cluster approach for benefiting the handloom weavers by providing training and skill up-gradation, infusion of new and contemporary designs through design intervention as well as product diversification, technology up-gradation, easy access to raw material at subsidized prices and easy credit flow at low interest rate etc., besides providing better health care and life insurance under welfare schemes.

The MSME sector plays an important role in the generation of employment opportunities in the country. As per the 4th All India Census of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises with reference year 2006-07, the MSMEs in an aggregate provide employment to over 80 million persons through over 36 million enterprises.

The Annual Employment Generation figures in the non-farm micro enterprises are captured in the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP). Since inception (2008-09) and upto 2013-14, the estimated employment generated under PMEGP is for around 24 lakh persons.

MSME sector accounted for 42.38 percent of the total export earnings of the country during the year 2013-14, added MSME Minister.