The Rajasthan government and the Small Industrial Development Bank of India (SIDBI) will soon ink an agreement to create newer avenues and growth opportunities for MSME units in the State.

For upcoming and existing MSME units in the State, SIDBI will identify clusters and create a plan to reach out to small entrepreneurs and provide consultation, business solutions and guidance for availing benefits under current schemes.

A project management unit (PMU) will be set up by SIDBI in Rajasthan to provide assistance to certain sectors which are cluster-based such as textiles in Bhilwara and handicrafts in Jodhpur. The initiative is aimed at creating a bridge between MSMEs and the Central/State government for understanding ground-level challenges that MSMEs are facing and creating an ideal ecosystem for ease of doing business.

“This endeavour would focus on delivering assistance and capacity building to the industrial associations and other line departments of the area. Synergising roles of various public and private service providers would be the aim and they intend to establish resource/knowledge centres for dissemination of information to enterprises at State, cluster and district levels,” an official statement said.

A meeting chaired by Archana Singh, Commissioner Industries, Government of Rajasthan, was held at Jaipur on Monday, where a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was discussed.

Singh said: “We have launched several initiatives for the MSMEs and many are benefiting from them. However, there are still some gaps in awareness of various schemes and the benefits available thereunder. With the active participation of the consultants provided by SIDBI, the cluster level challenges of MSMEs would be easier to address and MSMEs will also be able to avail benefits under relevant schemes.”

MSME empowerment

Since Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot took charge, several measures like the MSME Act, 2019 and the Mukhyamantri Laghu Udyog Protsahan Yojana were initiated to provide support to the MSMEs in the State. The proposed MoU with SIDBI is set to further fuel the growth of MSMEs in the State, the official said.

Under this initiative, SIDBI’s partner Grant Thornton will identify the institutional constraints, factor constraints, and demand constraints for MSMEs in the State by recognising the major clusters and their industries’ associations with the support of Rajasthan Government.

In a set timeline, the team deputed by SIDBI will create a strategy of a cluster-based value chain for resource optimisation, setting up of a resource centre for cluster-level consultation and a help desk as well as empowerment of the industry associations concerned.

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