The Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has called for setting up of an Udyog Sahayak Enterprises Network (USENET) to help micro and small enterprises clear roadblocks and scale up their operations.

The USENET centres, on the lines of Common Service Centres, will act as one-stop-shop for all the needs of micro, small and medium enterprises. The centres will offer services such as digitisation and formalisation, accessing loans, subsidies, compliance with local, regional, and national regulations.

The FICCI, which prepared a policy proposal along with Azim Premji University and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), said the micro and small enterprises needed a support system, ensuring ease of doing business for micro and small entrepreneurs.

“There is no recognition for the services rendered by the micro and small enterprises. They need handholding to help them grow big,” T Muralidharan, Chairman FICCI Telangana State Council and co-author of the report, said.

The report was submitted to the Working Group of Ministers (WgoM) on Employment and Skill Generation. “It has been accepted by them and forwarded to the Prime Minister’s Office,” he said.

Job opportunities

The report estimates that by helping them scale up their operations, USENET can create about one crore jobs in the next five years and up to six more jobs over the next 10 years.

“These jobs represent an additional economic value of ₹2.16-lakh crore in five years,” the report said.

“Rather than creating more nano-entrepreneurs, we need to help existing MSEs to grow in size,” Amit Basole, a co-author of the report and faculty member at Azim Premji University, said.

“We can help them grow by creating a support system which enables them to go digital, avail of government schemes and increase productivity. This will create millions of new jobs,” he said.

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