Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) on Tuesday has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Sambalpur, Odisha to strengthen the micro and small enterprises (MSEs) ecosystem of weaving and craft clusters across the state and the country.

Under this agreement, several strategic interventions will be initiated keeping in focus the supply-chain management, helping clusters become self-sustainable and developing a culture of entrepreneurship. 

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The MoU shall endeavor to build the capacity of the cluster in its perceived deficiencies like product costing, invoicing, Goods and Services Tax (GST), design, market connect and others, said Subhransu Acharya, Chief General Manager (CGM), SIDBI.

Citing SIDBI’s approach towards development of clusters, Acharya added that there is a need to enhance the competitiveness of clusters by identifying and addressing the Business Development Service requirements of such clusters.

He stressed on increasing the share of non local sales from Bargarh handloom cluster from the current 25-30 per cent to about 50 per cent by focusing on contemporary design, packaging and leveraging strength of online platforms. Acharya further suggested that IIM Sambalpur may work for promoting the local economy and can also consider setting up a design and craft incubator. 

Mahadeo Jaiswal, Director, IIM Sambalpur said this agreement aims to build capacity of the weavers operating at the bottom of the pyramid to access formal markets. 

Besides, IIM Sambalpur also announced its partnership with the e-commerce platform Flipkart to facilitate access of these weavers to digital e-commerce platforms.

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Lauding the initiative by SIDBI and IIM, Monisha Banerjee, DM and Collector, Bargarh urged the partners to ensure that the benefits of these partnerships reach the last weaver possible and are sustained over the long term. Ananya Das, DM and Collector, Sambalpur assured support from the administration for the initiative to endorse SIDBI’s craft incubation centre idea.