HYDERABAD: The Telangana Government is exploring avenues to revive sick micro, small and medium enterprises, including setting up of industrial health clinics, creating a fund with a ₹100 crore corpus and facilitating joint ventures between the units and foreign firms.
The State is seeking Central assistance for the fund, which is likely to become a reality in about three months. The fund would have contributions from the State government, agencies such as SIDBI besides a token sum from the sector itself, Principal Secretary to the Industries Department Arvind Kumar says.
The senior official, who recently handed over a letter from Industries Minister K.T.Rama Rao to Union Minister for MSMEs Kalraj Mishra in this regard, said a basic framework on revival policy is ready. Initially, the focus will be on addressing incipient sickness, on units that closed down in the last six months and those operating at less than 50 per cent of the last five years’ turnover.
Major employer
The State Government is keen on reviving as many MSME units as possible as the MSME sector is a major employer. Under the proposed Industrial Health Clinics, the State would undertake an intensive survey to study various aspects and form dedicated team of Industrial Promotion Officers.
A detailed proforma on the sick MSMEs would be prepared which would have information provided by the units and those sourced by the officials. These details, in turn, would be made available online to foreign investors looking at forming joint ventures with the units.
Welcome move
Welcoming the proposals, convenor of All India Forum for Small and Medium Industries K. Koteswara Rao said the body had mooted the Fund. On the scope for joint ventures, he said they are possible, primarily for medium enterprises, and depended on the techno-economic feasibility and scale of operations. In a representation to Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao in June this year, the Forum had said some 2,000 units were sick at the time of bifurcation of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh in 2014 and some 2,500 units added to the list over the next two years.
