Comments
The Institute of Small Enterprises Development (ISED) has called for confidence-building strategies for industry from the new government in Kerala at a time when the State’s economy is reeling under the strains of Covid pandemic.
Reviving entrepreneurial confidence needs to be the top priority for the new government, says an ISED Policy Brief- ‘Limits to Enterprise and Entrepreneurship under a Pandemic: The Kerala Scene” brought out by the ISED Small Enterprise Observatory.’
Enterprise Security is a problem that demands an integrated revival package involving components such as real services, innovative financial products, policy directives, and advocacy with the Union Government for reforms in some of the existing Central schemes, P.M.Mathew, ISED Chief, and author of the document said.
Distributional consequences
The pandemic, according to him, has brought serious distributional consequences, between those having social protection (the salaried), and the others. The self-employed, with the limited scope of the market for their products, and uncertain incomes, are the worst affected. While the ‘new normal’ is stretching out, many of the old jobs have disappeared; new products and services have replaced old ones; consumption patterns have drastically changed. All these involve adverse consequences on income opportunities of the ‘job creators’ in general, and more specifically the petty producers at the “bottom of the pyramid”.
In a State where, as high as 71.4 per cent of the budget gets allocated for salaries and pensions, this widening gap is a matter of immediate policy concern. The first priority of the new Government and the State Planning Board must be to make a scientific assessment of the situation, Mathew said.
Quoting estimates, he said the survival rate of registered MSMEs in Kerala is 10 per cent. Even this survival rate might have seriously eroded during the last two years. This is a matter of serious concern from the angle of sustainability of small businesses and entrepreneurship, and for provision of ‘decent jobs’ to the ever-increasing number of unemployed.
Two-pronged strategy
The ISED document underscores a two-pronged strategy such as the need to expedite the ongoing industrial infrastructure projects like corridors and industrial parks and a campaign mode intervention for rejuvenation.
There is a need for a ‘Decentralised Smart Entrepreneurship’ strategy, a match-making exercise in MSME rejuvenation, and meeting the aspirations of the technology start-up, Mathew added.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.