To make the small and medium enterprises competitive, the government should provide incentives for ICT (information and communication technologies) absorption under the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme, said S. Sivagnanam, Director, Micro Small and Medium Enterprises – Development Institute (MSME-DI).
Speaking at a one-day seminar on “ICT for SMEs,” organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Dr. Sivagnanam said that creating a common ICT solution for SMEs was impossible but a sector-wise server containing all the information could be set up by the government to improve efficiency and transparency in the sector.
Santosh Babu, Managing Director, Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT), said that the government wanted more small players from the SME industry to participate in its tenders. ELCOT had brought down the financial requirements for bidders and had created a more level-playing field, he said.
He said that a number of ELCOT projects were slated to come up in the near future. The ICT Academy was set to be inaugurated on August 27 by the Chief Minister, the interim State portal providing a comprehensive e-governance system would be up in two weeks, and the State Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG) would be ready in time for the launch of the Unique Identification Number (UIN) project of the Central government, he said.
A State-level corporate entity would also be set up next week to develop the Rural BPO model on the basis of the Krishnagiri-based Fostera company, he said. The Rs.55-crore State Data Centre project was now in the Request for Proposal (RFP) stage and the tender would be floated around November, he added.
Earlier, P.C. Duraisamy, convener, MSME panel, CII-Tamil Nadu, said that with over 80 per cent of the CII members belonging to the SME sector, it was important to focus on increasing the competitiveness of this sector.
Ashok Nandakumar, co-convener, MSME panel, CII-Tamil Nadu, said that the absorption of ICT would help increase efficiency and also introduce the best practices into the sector.
