MSMEs in Kerala: Industry promotion body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) will extend its support to 250 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Kerala through its network of Centres of Excellence, The Hindu reported. Within the state, Kottayam, Thrissur, Palakkad and Kozhikode districts have been identified by CII as focus areas to support MSMEs over the next few years, Kamal Bali, Chairman, CII Southern region told reporters according to the news report.
Bali noted that MSMEs have the biggest chunk of manufacturing in India and among the difficulties MSMEs face is related to scaling up. The centres of excellence by the industry body will support MSMEs in Kerala to get proficient in different areas of a business enterprise.
The CII already has five centres of excellence in South India. “CII is looking to use Kerala’s strength in areas like Ayurveda, tourism, hospitality industry and spices. An Ayurveda summit later this year is expected to help build the Kerala brand in the area,” Bali said.
According to the data from the Udyam registration platform, Kerala has more than 4.45 lakh registered MSMEs.
The government of Kerala observed the financial year 2022-23 as the ‘Year of Enterprise.’ Last year, the Kerala government launched the ‘One Family One Enterprise scheme’ to provide loans up to Rs 10 lakh with an interest rate of 4 per cent through an interest subvention of up to 6 per cent. The Kerala government aimed to generate 3-5 lakh employment opportunities in the MSME sector under the scheme.
Earlier this year, its industries department received recognition from the centre for its Year of Enterprises project which was selected as the best practice model in the ‘Thrust on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)’ category by the second National Conference of Chief Secretaries held at New Delhi from 5th to 7th January.
Moreover, the state’s Industries Minister, P. Rajeeve in December last year had highlighted the target of scaling up 1,000 MSMEs and turning them into Rs 100 crore turnover companies in the next three years.