'15 new Technology Centers to build SME clusters'

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Saurabh Gupta | 30 Oct, 2014
About 15 new Technology Centers to scale up the competitiveness building of SMEs through Clusters were announced by Secretary Ministry of MSME, Madhav Lal at the inaugural of the 7th National Cluster Summit, New Delhi. The theme of this year's summit was "Scaling Up Clusters: Fostering Growth and Employment in SMEs."

The first day of the summit drew an attendance of over 500 delegates including government officials, delegates from overseas and industry stalwarts from small and large enterprises.

He stressed, "Value addition is that core principal on which GDP figures can be altered. Capacity Building in areas of Cost, Productivity, Design and Soft Skills training can altogether transform the growth trajectory of an existing enterprise without a need to invest in infrastructural requirements like land, machinery etc."

Madhav Lal congratulated Confederation of Indian Industry for its continued and sustained efforts for synergizing energies and talents of individual units to thereby boost their productivity and efficiency.

As an inspiration from the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi's clarion call for facilitating the growth of competitiveness of Indian Manufacturing Sector through the ‘zero defect, zero effect’ policy, the CII-ZED Clusters were also launched and a brochure pertaining the same was released by the Secretary MSME.

The original CII Cluster Competitiveness Roadmap has been customized to provide accelerated results to participating companies. The CII-Avantha Centre for Competitiveness for SMEs with a national footprint has for over a decade dedicated its services for building competitiveness of Indian SMEs. A typical cluster is spread over 12-24 months.

Guided by our time-tested cluster development process, the CII-ZED Clusters will focus on fast-tracked competence building of the Indian Manufacturing Sector through intervention in areas like Discipline, Team Work, Zero Defect, Zero Effect on Environment and Sustenance Culture in a power-packed handholding of about 6-24 months.

Harbhajan Singh, Director General, National Productivity Council said, "the process of formation of Clusters using the Lean Manufacturing Competitiveness Scheme must be simplified."

He also said, "it is important to propagate and motivate the MSME sector."

Yogesh Munjal, Chairman, National Cluster Summit also talked about simplification of all processes. He said simple processes can help in making the Cluster approach for enhancing competitiveness go viral.

Dr. Sarita Nagpal, Principal Advisor, CII proposed that companies must be aspired to take on the path of competitiveness. ZED Cluster companies must be given incentives of recognition possibly through the PMOs website. These inputs were greatly appreciated by the senior dignitaries present; they said that CII has always been proactive in its vision that has helped the Indian SMEs grow.

Sessions such as 'Skill Development and Skilled India; Challenges in SMEs', 'Augmenting International Business through time tested Indo-German Manager Training Programme (IGMTP)', 'Scaling Up HR Practices - Fostering Growth and Employment in SMEs' were also held Wednesday.

Sessions planned for the second day of the Summit, 30 October, are on Energy Efficiency, Manufacturing Excellence through Energy Conservation, Automation and Technology, Role of BMOs in promoting SCP practices in SMEs, Facilitating Last Mile Reach to Finances, Achieving Zero Defect, Zero Effect. The valedictory will be graced by senior Government dignitaries.

The National Cluster Summit is the annual flagship event of the CII-Avantha Centre for Competitiveness for SMEs that aims at giving a new direction to the cluster movement and enable networking amongst Indian SMEs and their Eco System. The highlights of the event are the Kaizen Gallery Exhibition and Cluster Championship and Kaizen Awards which will be given away to companies on Thursday who have excelled through Cluster Approach.