The Hindu Business Line : Nisiet — A self-sufficient organisation raring to grow

THE idea that entrepreneurs need not necessarily be born, but could be nurtured through proper training, was first enunciated and demonstrated here, way back in the 1960s.

Four decades later, the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (CEDD) at the National Institute of Small Industry Extension Training (Nisiet) in Hyderabad continues to be one of the most effective places for shaping up entrepreneurs. Not just this, it has also taken a lead role in giving a push to cluster development of small and medium enterprises in the country.

The Institute is also credited with establishing the concept of appropriate technology in the Indian context. It has created the wherewithal to usher in a pro-business environment, at least among small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Known, internationally as the SIET Experiment, a group of motivated people — Prof McClelland from Harvard, Dr Uday Parekh, Mr Manohar Nadkarni and Mr Somnath Chattopadhya among others - evolved methodologies in 1964 through the first laboratory training, to show that entrepreneurs can be developed.

Riding on years of consolidation in areas of training, entrepreneurship, global collaborations, and a strong resources centre, Nisiet today boasts of achieving self-sufficiency financially. It has diversified its activity by providing consultancy to State Governments and foraying into emerging technology areas.

The Principal Director of Nisiet, Dr Chukka Kondaiah, who is an expert in entrepreneurship, says the institute has, for the first time, done an international consultancy project. For Mauritius, it has prepared a vision document for nurturing women entrepreneurs during 2003-04. In fact, the Mauritian Minister also visited Nisiet, and two training programmes were conducted.

Till 1996, the institute, under the Union Ministry of Small Scale Industries, was funded to the tune of Rs 2 crore. Thereafter, it was progressively reduced. In the last two years, the funding was completely off. Taking up the challenge, the institute faculty toned up their efficiency to increase revenues and reach Rs 6.70 crore during fiscal 2003-04, with a few lakhs profit. In fiscal 2004-05, the earning touched Rs 6.98 crore, he told Business Line in an interview.

The international training programmes have gone up from 10 to 19, the departments have been restructured into centres (now 12) and cells (5), each focussed on specific areas.

The latest is the National Resource Centre for Cluster Development (NRCD), for which the Ministry of SSI has provided financial support of Rs 90 lakh.

Cluster development is the new mantra in the SSI Ministry. It has identified over 65 major clusters across the country, which could be potentially developed as strengths. The Nisiet has been given the catalyst role to study and suggest best methods for technology upgradation to marketing in a good number of such clusters.

Dr Kondaiah said the NRCD would take guidance from the Unido, in extending support to the 21 clusters for which it has been given responsibility by the Ministry. It has already started training Government officials from Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and the northeastern region. Similarly, it is training officials of financial institutions such as Andhra Bank, Nabard, SBH and SIDBI, which are active in financing entrepreneurship and SMEs.

Encouraged by the potential, Nisiet has taken the next step after training — implementation, in cluster development in the case of crochet lace-making in Narsapur in Andhra Pradesh. Dr Kondaiah said Nisiet's interventions has resulted in increased incomes to lace makers, in addition to fine-tuning some of the gaps, including marketing.

With little support from the Government and growing competition in the fields of training and consultancy, Nisiet has adopted the market-driven approach. "We have signed MoUs with the Centre for Development for Asia and Pacific (CIRDAP, Dhaka and the Afro Asia Rural Development Organisation (AARDO), New Delhi to go global," he said.

The beautiful campus, once (1960s) at a comfortable distance from the heart of the city, is today situated right in the midst of a rapidly growing residential and commercial area. However, once inside, the academic environment to pursue academic activity and serious research studies has been preserved.

It is also getting a separate building for training to enhance its infrastructure facilities. Efforts are on to introduce new training courses from IT to fashion technology to attract youngsters to be motivated into entrepreneurship.

In addition to providing training to representatives of SMEs from African countries, Nisiet during 2004-05 has done small industry profiles for the Small and Medium Industries Development Organisation of Mauritius. At home, it has been recently asked by the State Government to do a comprehensive survey of the SSIs in the State, in six months.

The Nisiet's expertise is being utilised by the Government of Rajasthan, which is trying to train women entrepreneurs, set up clusters in handicrafts, food processing etc. an exclusive incubation centre for women entrepreneurs.

A major initiative underway is the counselling, retraining and redeployment of a large number of Government and PSU employees who had opted for voluntary retirement. During 2003-04, it helped 1,500 and during 2004-05 about 3,000 employees. An encouraging percentage of the trained are starting small business enterprises, which are less risky, Dr Kondaiah said.

Looking ahead, Dr Kondaiah said Nisiet would focus on enhancing capabilities in intellectual property rights among entrepreneurs, reach out to the large number of engineering colleges, propagate environmental friendly enterprises and explore sunrise industries such as IT, biotech, and food processing.

Efforts are also underway to spread the institute's experience and expertise in developing countries. It has also forayed into the banking sector, with training projects for the Oriental Bank of Commerce and Canara Bank. A Nisiet-NGO network has been established to facilitate rural enterprise development as well.

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