Role of MSMEs in the Pathway of Becoming 5 Trillion Economy

India is surging ahead on the path of economic transformation with a steady approach. Experts find that the next level of global socio-economic success story is getting written and it's getting written in India. Now, having said that, MSMEs are chosen as the central character of this next-level economic success story. Prime Minister Narendra Modi have categorically hinted some key priorities for the country and MSMEs have certainly selected as one of them.

There are several opportunities at the global level, from the endangered global dominance of Chinese manufacturing to the high potential of the Indian service industry for the global markets, India and Indian businesses have a favourable turf.

But, to achieve such transformation for the betterment requires certain aggressive goal setting. The goal setting for the Indian economic revival is coming from the top. Union Minister for MSME, Mr, Nitin Gadkari have made it clear that MSMEs in India will surely be going to play an important role in economic growth.

To Become 5 Trillion Economy

As far as the top-level goal setting is concerned, major emphasis is given on making India a 5 trillion economy. This goal, in itself, leads to many smaller goals which may collectively lead to this great goal.

Prime Minister Modi has mentioned this aggressive goal setting and Niti Aayog have made a realistic plan to achieve this goal. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharam and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal are often quoted hat by 2025 India will become a 5 trillion Dollar Economy.

Now, coming over to the participation of MSMEs, MSME Minister, Nitin Gadkari have made a strong statement that not only   India will become a 5 Trillion Dollar economy but also Indian MSMEs’s contribution to nation’s GDP will going to get increased to 50% from the present 29%.

Well, this statement with a strong vision and planning will certainly be going to completely change the face of Indian MSME landscape. This change will be a complete facelift of Indian MSMEs.

To achieve such huge targets, Ministry of MSME is working aggressively not just in board rooms but a strong on-ground plan is getting set.

The secretariat of the MSME Ministry has understood this vision and have started working towards this goal.

Roadmap of 5 Trillion Dollar Economy, MSMEs' Contribution

To bring real transformational results in favour of Indian MSMEs, a seven points agenda is been formulated. These critical seven points are:

1. Human Capital Development
2. Counselling
3. Access to Technology
4. Access to Capital
5. Infrastructure creation
6. Market Access
7. Ease of Doing Business

While each point has its utility in adding value to the present day scenario of Indian MSMEs. Apart from Human Capital Development which can easily be understood as a critical element or the starting point of entrepreneurship every other aspect of entrepreneurship journey starts after the Human Capital Development.

Counselling comes next and this requires motivation and knowledge access and for this, a national level of knowledge resource is getting developed by the MSME Ministry. And the entire model of counselling is getting transformed and the excruciation of this will be performed at the DICs and other regional centres.

Access to technology sounds very simple but this is a very tricky subject. The problem entrepreneurs are facing today knows about technologies through sources which are in the business of selling these technologies. A complete unbiased approach is required which will be a business-critical consultancy and MSMEs get to know about specific technologies which can add value in their business. Relevancy should drive the selection parameter of technology for the specific business.

Now comes the most critical element of running any form of business that is accessing capital.  Accessing capital or credit or finance is the most common challenge for most of the MSMEs. For this, banking institutions will come into the ecosystem for MSMEs and government agencies can play an important role of facilitator.

Now, to complete this MSME friendly ecosystem there are several other critical issues needed to get fixed and together they form a fabric of infrastructure. This includes; logistics, last mile connectivity and digital infrastructure.

Once all of this is created, and an MSME gets into this ecosystem the only area left for any entrepreneur is the aspect of market access. So as a sixth area, opening market access for the MSMEs will come into the picture. These entire steps will create a business-friendly ecosystem that will ensure the ease of doing business element. An efficient convergence of the entire program will form a positive experience of doing business which ultimately can lead to the creation of great value from the deserving and potential rich Indian MSMEs.

MSMEs & The Job Creation Target

All of this lead to the achievement of another major aggressive target that the top-level policymakers have kept. That is the creation of over 5 crore jobs within five years.

MSME Minister, Nitin Gadkari have made it clear that his aim for the MSME sector for the next five years is to create 5 Crore jobs. This statement in itself will be going to transform the country’s per capita income graph and MSMEs can be great value creator in this area as well.

With such planning and efficient convergence of government to entrepreneur and entrepreneur to entrepreneur and entrepreneur to consumers services, MSMEs in India will be known to become the greatest asset of the World’s fastest-growing economy.