SME Times News Bureau | 23 Dec, 2019
Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel Dharmendra
Pradhan on Monday said that Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises play a key role
in job creation and large enterprises alone cannot create jobs.
Speaking in the 33rd National Conference of All India
Induction Furnace Association of India (AIIFA) on Secondary Steel Sector,
Pradhan stated that while economies of scale has its own benefits, large
industries alone cannot cater to the huge population in terms of jobs creation.
“Our MSMEs play an important role in large scale employment creation.
The nation cannot prosper without wealth creators. Guided by
the mantra of “Minimum Government, Maximum Governance” we are committed to
facilitate growth of wealth creators,” he added.
Speaking on the occasion, he urged the industry
to focus on development of new technologies and work towards export indigenous
technologies to ensure more value addition and making Indian steel sector more
competitive.
Talking about policy reforms, Pradhan said,
“Almost half of country’s steel production is done by the secondary steel
sector. We are making our policy framework more inclusive. Our Government has
made raw material even more accessible to the secondary steel sector.Industry
must reciprocate by producing more value added products.”
Speaking about importance of energy availability
and affordability for the steel sector, Pradhan said, “Steel industry needs
more affordable energy. We are exploring new sources of energy. We are moving
towards a gas based economy. We are laying a big network through Urja Ganga
Yojana. We have 600 Million MT biomass in the country. Through use of
technology, uptake guarantee we are planning to facilitate setting up of 5000
plants for bio energy generation. “
Speaking about India’s ambition to become a net
steel exporter, Shri Pradhan said, “India still imports high quality steel. We
have a large market with skilled workforce. We must create an ecosystem to
develop more high quality steel in the country and move towards becoming a net
exporter.”