Policy to boost overall growth of MSMEs by year-end: Kalraj

The national policy for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which seeks to boost the overall growth of the sector, is expected to be released by the year-end. “A committee headed by former Cabinet Secretary Prabhat Kumar is drafting the policy and we are expecting the report by October 31,” MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra said, while spelling out his ministry's achievements in the past two years.

He said the committee would meet some more stakeholders for the proposed policy and they were also looking at policies of other countries. “We want a detailed policy for MSMEs. A committee will be set up by the month-end to look after the revival and rehabilitation of sick MSME units,” the minister said.

At present, there is no integrated approach for the development of MSMEs, despite the fact that the sector accounts for 45 per cent of India’s manufacturing and 40 per cent of exports.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had revised the rules pertaining to the revival of advances to small businesses and asked lenders to form district-level committees to resolve stressed loans to MSMEs. 

Talking about the increase in sales of khadi and village industries products, Mishra said it had increased to Rs 37,935 crore in 2015-16 from Rs 33,136 crore in 2014-15. “PM Narendra Modi’s suggestion for khadi products has helped in increasing the sales volumes. We have also improved the quality and introduced new products,” he said.