'Second Technology Centre for Fragrance been set up in Imphal'

NEW DELHI: Addressing the 1st FICCI Fragrance Business Summit, B B Swain, Secretary MSME, said that the Ministry would like to lend all the support for the growth and development of fragrance industry in India. He emphasised that a large number of MSME players are part of this sector, and it is important to handhold them with suitable interventions in sustainable technology and infrastructure.

There is a growing local and export demand for these products and the industry has an inherent potential to grow further in India, Swain said. It is important to build a sustainable supply chain, strengthening each link in it. The Ministry of MSME has a Fragrance & Flavour Development Centre at Kannauj, which extends technology and skilling support to the MSMEs. Encouraged by its contribution to the MSME sector and its outreach, one more Technology Centre is being established in Imphal, Manipur said B B Swain.

He mentioned that as of now there are 26000 industries registered under MSME in fragrance and flavour sector. The industry has an inherent potential to grow and meet the demands not just in India but outside too.

The Secretary stated that one of the most important approaches would be to bring MSMEs in the formal ambit. As per an estimate made in 2016, there are more than 6 crore non-agricultural unincorporated entities in the country. And in just 26 months, as many as 1.09 crore MSMEs have already registered on Udyam portal. These enterprises account for employment given to 8.2 crore people, of which 1.9 crore are women. Ministry of MSME is working with SIDBI to formalise the 'micro' of the micro enterprises, so that enterprises which do not have the mandatory requirement of PAN but do have documents to establish credentials of their enterprise, can also be brought in the formal sector and can avail benefits of Priority Sector Lending and those of our programs and

schemes.