Help desks for entrepreneurs in local bodies from tomorrow

The facility will be manned by trained personnel and will be open on Mondays, Wednesdays

The State Industries department will launch help desks across the State on June 27, which is being observed as Micro-, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises Day.

Director of Industries and Commerce S. Harikishore says it would be a big moment and a historic beginning for industries and entrepreneurship in the State. The help desks, manned by trained personnel, would be open on Mondays and Wednesdays to help entrepreneurs.

The help desks would be opened with trained interns, who are appointed in all the local bodies. A total of 1,153 interns have been trained and appointed. They would undergo continuous training to help entrepreneurs. The personnel manning the help desks would be in the field during the rest of the working days to identify potential enterprises and entrepreneurs, he says.

The UN General Assembly had declared June 27 as Micro-, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises Day in April 2017, recognising the role of micro, small and medium industrial units in creating employment.

The new initiative, along with the establishment of private industrial parks, is part of the efforts to achieve the goal of helping launch one lakh MSMEs in the State during the current financial year.

Industries Minister P. Rajeeve had said earlier that the State was on its way to setting up one lakh MSME units after 13,137 new enterprises were registered in the first two-and-a-half months of the financial year.

Meanwhile, the Industries department has started receiving online applications from groups of entrepreneurs and various other entities for setting up private industrial parks. The department has so far received more than 20 applications and they are expected to be processed within one to two months. The government is offering substantial subsidies — up to a limit of ₹3 crore — to private estates to help develop various facilities, including infrastructure, says Mr. Kishore.

The Industries department official says the private industrial estate initiative too is a big step towards encouraging new enterprises and would help new entrepreneurs and attract fresh investments in the State.