Government think tank Niti Aayog is working on a plan to improve India’s penetration into global value chains for the growth of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), its CEO B V R Subrahmanyam said on Wednesday.
MSMEs, which are most affected by regulations, have challenges that must be tackled in clusters and groups, he said, adding a task force under the cabinet secretary is working on deregulation.
“To penetrate global value chains, you need to have the ecosystem here, which means the intermediate routes,” Subrahmanyam said. The bulk of global manufacturing is of intermediate products, which are largely made by MSMEs, he said at the launch of the Digital Excellence for Growth and Enterprise, or Dx-EDGE, a platform to empower MSMEs with the tools, knowledge and ecosystem needed to become future-ready, competitive & resilient.
Dx-EDGE is a national initiative spearheaded by CII with the support of NITI Frontier Tech Hub (NITI FTH) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to drive digital transformation across India’s MSMEs.
Citing the example of mobile phones, which is a success story of the production-linked incentive scheme, he said some of the big manufacturers have moved to India.
However, the other side of the story is that 95% of what goes into mobile phone manufacturing is being imported, he added.
Speaking at the event, MSME secretary S C L Das said that frontier tech, digitalisation and technology have become a necessity to survive the global headwinds and emerging challenges and grow to become a developed nation.
The registered MSMEs in the country are expected to touch 90 million by 2029 from over 60 million currently registered under Udyam and Udyam Assist portals.