Finance must be accessible for MSMEs: Kalraj Mishra

Inaugurating the second Innovation Summit-2014 of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Kalraj Mishra, Union Minister, Ministry of MSME, Government of India said that micro, small and medium enterprises across the country needed capital at relaxed rates of interest to run their enterprises and cater to the needs of their big brothers as well as contributes substantially to India’s manufacturing and external engagements.

The Union Ministry of Miscro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) is lobbying hard with the public sector banking enterprises to extend loan facilities to micro, small and medium enterprises at base rate so that this segment is able to access vast capital from the financial and banking institutions at much cheaper rates and roll out quality products and run their enterprises effectively, according to the Union Minister for MSME Mr. Kalraj Mishra.

“To ensure this, I am meeting the senior functionaries of banking and financial institutions at Lucknow on Thursday (tomorrow) so that an earlier decision is taken on this front with their concurrence which will be duly endorsed subsequently by the Reserve Bank of India, Finance Minsitry and the Prime Minister Office”, said Mr. Mishra.

“My Ministry has been working hard to make sure that the new government succeeds in setting up of Credit Guarantee Trust Funds to extend liberal packages to MSME as a whole and inputs have already been incorporated in the new draft MSME Policy which is at the advanced stage of finalization.  The government proposes to roll out the new policy in the next 30 days”, said Mr. Mishra.

As per stipulation of the new policy, the general procedures as well as procurement procedures would be vastly simplified and all clearances for setting up of micro and small businesses would be accorded online within a fixed period of 15 days, assured the Minister.

Mr Mishra also launched an android application especially prepared for MSME sector by PHD Chamber of Commerce. This Android App called the PHD-MSME App. The App has been developed with the help of students of Delhi University.

This App provides solutions to budding entrepreneurs and existing MSME entrepreneurs of different dimensions like marketing, finance, training and capacity building, different government schemes and opportunities. ​

President and Vice President of PHD Chamber Mr. Sharad Jaipuria and Mr. Mahesh Gupta complimented the government for being proactive towards the industry by formulating policies that would accrue higher growth to India.  Both Mr. Jaipuria and Mr. Gupta thanked the MSME Minister for making sure that MSME segment which is an important stakeholder in the space of PHD Chamber for making sure that the new government would treat it with base rate interest facilities.  The need of the hour is to build the innovative capacities of MSMEs to unleash their entrepreneurial spirit.