Prime Minister Presents National Awards to Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises

Five Lakh persons will get Skill Development Training Annually : Mahabir Prasad

The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh presented the National Awards to the successful Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) as also to the Banks for excellence in MSE/micro lending in New Delhi on 30^th August, 2008.. Spelling out the positive contribution of the MSME sector towards employment generation, the Prime Minister said in his speech that this sector provides employment to over 42 million people. It contributes about 45% of the total manufacturing output and nearly 40% of India's exports. It is the capacity of this sector to generate economic activity at the local level that prompted Gandhiji to give the pride of place to Khadi, he added.

Congratulating the award winning entrepreneurs, he said that in addition to its role in employment creation the MSME sector also provides vital components and accessories for the large manufacturing sector. In this way it contributes significantly to the process of rapid industrialization.

Dr. Manmohan Singh said that India is estimated to have the capacity to create 500 million skilled and trained technicians by the year 2020 and claim a fourth of the global workforce. Education and skill development can be India’s global opportunity. He said that he had written to the chief ministers to consider opening up the buildings of educational institutions of the high school level and above after class hours for those agencies who are engaged in skill development for the youth. Hailing the banks for providing affordable and timely credit to the MSME sector, the Prime Minister said, “The target we set in 2005 was to double the flow of bank credit to this sector in five years. I am happy to note that the credit flow has more than doubled from Rs.67,000 crore to Rs. 1,48,000 crore since 2005.”

Speaking on this occasion, Shri Mahabir Prasad, Union Minister of MSME said, during 2007-08, MSME sector recorded a growth rate of 13% which is 3% more than the overall growth rate of the whole industrial sector. Shri Prasad said during the year 2007-08, 1.8 lakh people were imparted the skill development trainings by various organizations under his ministry which is approximately double than that of the previous year. Referring to Prime Minister’s initiative on the Skill Development Mission, he said that the Ministry of MSME was committed to implement the same. Shri Prasad said, “It is our endeavour to achieve a target of 5 lakh persons per year by the end of 11th Five Year Plan under skill development programme.” He said, 37 lakh new employment opportunities would be created under the newly launched Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) in rural and urban areas of the country for establishing micro enterprises with the assistance of R.4735 crore from the Government of India and this would lead to an investment of about Rs.15,000 crore.

Praising the role of banks in making the credit available to MSMEs, Shri Prasad said that the public sector banks achieved 40% increase in loan disbursement against the target of 20% per annum during 2007-08. 

The National Award Function was organized by the four important organizations under the Ministry of MSME, namely, Office of the Development Commissioner (MSME), National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) and Coir Board. The First National Awards and Special Awards for women, SC/ST and North East Region categories consisted of rupee one lakh in cash, a certificate and a trophy. The Second National Awards carried a cash prize of seventy five thousand rupees, a certificate and a trophy while the Third National Award carried rupees fifty thousand in cash, a certificate and a trophy. 

Total 80 awards were presented in various categories. Shri Mahabir Prasad and the Secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Shri Dinesh Rai also presented some of the awards.