Govt to bring Agro MSME policy to boost rural economy, says Gadkari

Union minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the government is working on an Agro MSME policy which will focus on entrepreneurship development in rural, tribal, agricultural and forest areas for manufacturing products.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government will soon announce a policy for small and micro industries in the agriculture sector, said Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in a virtual meeting with the industry representatives today.

“The Agro MSME policy will focus on entrepreneurship development in rural, tribal, agricultural and forest areas for manufacturing products,” Gadkari told the industry representatives.

He said the thrust would be on encouraging the use of local raw material.

India’s agriculture sector, which has largely been unaffected by a nearly two month long nationwide lockdown, is expected to emerge as a bright spot amid a slowing economy.

It is critical for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to support the farmers and agro industries, including MSMEs engaged in production of agro based products as these two sectors account for the bulk of employment in the country.

While nearly half of the country’s workforce is employed in agriculture and allied activities, around 12 crore people are employed in the MSME sector.

In August 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had set an ambitious target of doubling the farm income in five years. He also announced the first ever farm export policy in November 2018 in his bid to supplement the farm income as domestic prices and consumption proved inadequate in achieving the target within the five years.

The MSME ministry’s decision to announce a separate Agro MSME policy may prove a game changer as the MSME sector accounts for nearly 45% of the country’s overall export.

“There is a need to focus on export enhancement as well as import substitution to replace foreign imports with domestic production,” Gadkari told the participants from SME sector, SME Export Promotion Council, and beauty and wellness industries.

He also urged the representatives of the beauty and wellness sectors to use domestically produced herbal products instead of using imported cosmetics.

“The MSME ministry has already signed a MoU with the ministry of Ayush for training, skilling and entrepreneurship development which will be beneficial for the wellness sector,” said Gadkari while urging the representatives from the beauty and wellness sector to register as MSME to avail the benefits of this initiative.

Industrial development around Delhi-Mumbai E-way

Gadkari informed the SME industry representative that the work on new alignment of Delhi-Mumbai Green Express Highway has already started

“This is an opportunity for industry to make future investments in industrial clusters, logistics parks equipped with state-of-art technology,” he told the business leaders.

Gadkari said there was a need to develop industrial clusters in areas other than metro cities.

MSME sector demands economic stimulus

In their meeting with the Gadkari, industry representatives highlighted the problems faced by them during the nationwide lockdown that has badly affected their operations.

Industry representatives sought the help of the government as small companies and firms have been struggling to pay salary and wages to their employees.

Industry representatives sought relaxed norms for credit and moratorium on loan repayment to help them to tide over this difficult time.

“We sought relaxed norms for availing credits for the MSME sector,” said Chandrakant Salunkhe, President of SME Chamber of India.

“Banks can actually help a lot by giving us affordable credit,” Salunkhe told ETV Bharat.

(Article by Krishnanand Tripathi)