The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Tamil Nadu, on Friday, apprised entrepreneurs of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) about new government schemes, technology support for business and market potential for their products.
Experts and senior officials of Central and State governments spoke on ‘Role of government and institutions in developing MSME,’ ‘Latest tools and technology for growing your business,’ and ‘Emerging opportunities for MSME.’ There were talks on single window portal launched by the MSME Department, schemes and support from NSIC, exchange of technology and using technology for business enhancement.
A.S. Ananthakrishnan, Chairman, CII Tiruchi Zone; and Sounder Kannan, whole-time Director, Naga Limited, set the tone for the event by specifying expected outcome.
The focus was on the government’s new initiatives. Entrepreneurs were informed about the government’s new initiative to foster business through digital portals. They were told about the inevitability of adopting latest technologies to reduce dependency on labour. Shortage of workforce will leave MSMEs with the only option of leveraging technology, K.P. Gopal, Convenor, CII Tamil Nadu State MSME Panel, said.
The programme was of useful to the SMEs focussing on fabrication in Tiruchi region as they could register their companies with public sector undertakings and large companies. In the backdrop of reduced orders from BHEL, many of its ancillaries evinced interest to be vendors of L & T Shipping Ltd., Cochin Shipyard Ltd., Integral Coach Factory, and Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited. An attempt was made to match the strengths of the Tiruchi fabrication cluster to the requirements of the large industries, Mr. Gopal said.
Clarity could be established about the single window system of the State government for MSMEs which was working well, he said.
