The Hindu Business Line : Govt aid to set up entrepreneur development institute for SSIs

THE Ministry of Small Scale Industries has sought to give a fillip to institutionalising entrepreneur training in the SSI sector to make them market-savvy.

The Ministry has come forward to encourage the foras for SSI to develop Entrepreneur Development Institutes (EDIs) across the country, according to Ms Stuti Kacker, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of SSI, Government of India.

Participating at the inauguration of the second edition of the subcontracting fair `Subcon 2005' here on Thursday, Ms Kacker said there was a need to support the SSI sector in accessing market intelligence and sharpening management skills and the sector-specific EDI would go a long way in realising these.

She said as per the scheme available for setting up the EDIs, the Centre would give Rs 1 crore as a matching grant and the local SSI cluster willing to promote would have to work through the State Government in establishing the same.

Calling upon the Coimbatore District Small Scale Industries Association (Codissia) to promote one such EDI, Ms Kacker said that there were already four such institutes functioning.

Also, proposal to develop one EDI for biotech sector from Tiruchi has been received by the Ministry which is being processed, she said.

The Subcon 2005, which aims at promoting subcontracting of goods and services from SSI and outsourcing opportunities for the sector from large industries, is being jointly hosted by the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC) and the Confederation of Indian Industry along with Codissia.

The four-day biennial event has attracted over 200 vendor/vendee participation. Some of the large industries which displayed their outsourcing needs are Ashok Leyland, TVS, Bharat Earth Movers Ltd and Southern Railway's Signal and Telecommunication unit from Podanur.

Mr V.R.S. Natarajan, Chairman and Managing Director of BEML, Bangalore, speaking on the occasion, said the company would welcome a delegation from SSI entrepreneurs from Coimbatore to its four factories to assess their outsourcing needs.

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