The 74th Plenary of the United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution to observe June 27 as the MSME Day. MSMEs play a crucial role in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The day is celebrated to shine the focus on MSMEs and their contribution to global economy. MSMEs account for 90% of businesses, 60 to 70% of employment and 50% of GDP worldwide.

The Bengal Chamber and MSME DI celebrated the day on June 27, 2022 at the Chamber premises in association with Tata Steel. The celebration was aimed at, Exploring Digital Platforms for Enhancing Businesses and Facilitating Credit Linkages.

While addressing the celebration, the Chief Guest of the programme, Shri Rajesh Pandey, IAS, Principal Secretary, MSME & Textile, Govt. of West Bengal said that MSME sector in West Bengal has attracted record investment over 1.4 lakh crore in the last fiscal. The investment has resulted huge employment generation in the State. He added, “In the last financial year the MSME sector has got a bank credit of Rs. 1 crore, which was an all time record. This was the highest lending to MSME and considering that we are recovering from a pandemic, it is an achievement.” However, he expressed his concerned and said “Despite the huge credit disbursed by the banks there are MSMEs mostly in districts which faced trouble in getting loans from banks. In many cases the reasons of disapproval of loans were not clear to the applicants.” The banks have not yet decided the credit target for the current fiscal, however, Shri Pandey said that should be 20% more than what was achieved last year.

Integration of MSMEs into the global value chain, strengthening regional innovation systems, and establishing a multipurpose science and technology commission are of utmost importance for breaking the barriers. This would help the country in many ways including generation of employment, boosting income, improving productivity, said Mr. Sanjay Behera, Chairperson, Manufacturing & MSME Committee of The Bengal Chamber and Chief of Sales, Tata Steel. He also mentioned how the government has especially mandated that banks to achieve a 20% year on year growth in credit to micro and small enterprises. While delivering the theme address Mr. Behera said, “MSMEs account for 27% of country’s GDP and 45% of the country’s export and hence the growth of the sector is crucial for country’s overall development.”

While speaking on one of the theme areas of the programme, “Role of E−platforms in Solving Growth Challenges for MSMEs” Ms. Madhura Sekhsaria, Head − Partnerships, TATA Business Hub said that by harnessing technology MSMEs can expand their roles in global supply chains while becoming globally competitive. Explaining the significance of E−platforms she added that digital platforms can help MSMEs do so by solving their challenges and optimising required processes to grow their businesses nationally and internationally through setting up a trusted digital presence and connecting them to customers that were earlier beyond their reach. Building a strong digital identity, through the right channels can help MSMEs broaden their reach and thus expand their businesses. For solving the aforementioned challenges, technology can enable easier and quicker access to credit digitally in comparison to offline credit. A very large proportion of MSMEs often get rejected when they apply for working capital credit, and even when they are eligible, the process for the same can be extremely cumbersome and that is where technology plays the role of messiah. 

Credit Linkage for MSMEs was another focus area of the programme. Shri Bhanu Prakash Verma, General Manager, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) said that considering the challenges and disruptions created by COVID, SIDBI has launched various financial schemes for MSMEs to support them in addressing the challenges. He mentioned about the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) to overcome the difficulties faced by the first time entrepreneurs with no collateral. He informed the MSMEs present in the audience that rejection of proposal for credit has been a big problem and to address the problem SIDBI has started PSP 59 Portal through which MSMEs may approach any bank of their choice for sanctions of loan digitally.

Mr. Maneesh Sinha, Senior Vice President, HDFC Bank emphasized on digitization on availing bank credit for businesses. He said, “Most of the business entities HDFC is associated with are now digitally active and this is how business share and employee volume may be grown for everyone. Our customers are digitally active. We have grown significantly in this sector. Our consistency across portfolios is remarkable. People are looking at quick disposition of transparent applications; all of their questions are transparently answered.” He also said that MSMEs get concessions but HDFC bank also gives them a host of their own benefits. During Covid our business affiliations went up because applicants need to come to the bank, they could do it online.

Shri Debabrata Mitra, IEDS, Director and Head of Office, MSME Development Institute, Kolkata, Government of India in his concluding remarks informed the audience about the various schemes that are available for the MSMEs.

The Inaugural session was followed by the technical sessions. The first technical session was, “Exploring Global Market by Levaraging E−platforms.” In this session, Mr. Praveen Kumar Wilson Purty, Chief of Marketing − Flat Products, Tata Steel spoke on “Digital Solution For MSME.” Mr. Biswajit Sarkar, In Charge of the State and Master Trainer, Gem Portal, West Bengal spoke on “Gem Schemes for MSMEs.”

The second Technical Session was, “Credit Linkages for MSMEs.” Experts from SIDBI, HDFC and Canara Banks participated in the session and explained the products offered by their banks for MSMEs.

Large industries, Tata Steel Downstream Products Limited, Exide Industries and International Combustion which hold up development of MSME businesses suppported the program as Industry Partners.