Workshop on MSME technologies
Technology is needed for production, preservation and marketing of products, said Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Pratap Chandra Saarangi.
Coping up with new technologies is essential to compete in the global market, he added at a workshop on “Outreaching of Emerging Technologies to MSMEs” in New Delhi on 26 Sept 2019.
However, he cautioned against over application of technology which sometimes goes against nature.
The workshop was to raise awareness about generation and dissemination of knowledge about some of the emerging technologies, their applications, the kind of potential they offer, the impact they can have on the sector, challenges faced in adoption and some relevant models from around the world.
The other aim is to chart a way forward for institution-to-institution collaboration to make the penetration of these technologies to the MSMEs faster and effective.
Secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Arun Panda said that MSMEs should have access to and be able to adopt latest and new technologies and appealed to business associations to help MSMEs in technology upgradation and access to credit.
Referring to Government’s efforts, he said “Currently, we are running 18 Tool rooms and 15 more tool rooms are under construction. Apart from them, 120 new Tool Rooms/Technology centres have been approved and these 153 centres when fully operational will train approximately eight lakh youngsters in various skills.”
MSME Development Commissioner Ram Mohan Mishra pointed out that India has many good Research Institutes, Technology Institutes and Scientific Labs and it is their pious duty to equip the small industries to provide and equip them with latest technologies to increase their production.
He appealed to business associations to help small industries in this endeavour.
The MSME sector has been recognized globally as a major contributor to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The sector occupies a position of strategic importance, currently, there are over 60 million MSMEs across various industries that employs more than 111 million persons and produces more than 8,000 products ranging from traditional to high-tech precision items.
The manufacturing landscape is changing rapidly and there is a strong need for MSMEs to be agile and flexible to be able to survive this change. This workshop has been organized to meet these challenges, said the MSME Ministry. fiinews.com
