From Amitabh Kant and KP Krishnan to Srinivasan Srini and Geeta Goel, these esteemed speakers will enlighten MSMEs on the way forward

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc with the economy, one of the hardest-hit sectors in India - the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) - needs a pragmatic action plan to revive, survive and sustain in the face of these uncertain times.

Driven by this objective, the Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME)-led National Task Force for MSMEs is hosting ‘The MSME Transformation “Dynamic India” Convening’, supported by Facebook and powered by YourStory on July 15, 2020.

This one-of-a-kind, large-scale convening is a unique opportunity for MSME stakeholders to witness the convergence of key figures from the government, industry leaders, and mentors on a single platform where the discussion will range from tackling issues such as liquidity, ease of doing business, and compliance concerns among others.

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Know how to revive MSMEs with this online convening of eminent stakeholders

With an esteemed line up of speakers who will enlighten MSME stakeholders on the way forward, this convening is an unmissable opportunity. Here’s what’s in store

MSME Competitiveness -The Strategic Way Forward

Speakers: Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Aayog; Dr. K.P. Krishnan, Former Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of India, and Ravi Venkatesan, Founder, GAME

The multi-track online convening will commence with a panel featuring Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Aayog; Dr. K.P. Krishnan, Former Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of India; and Ravi Venkatesan, Founder, GAME, who will set the context for the event, and deliberate upon competitiveness as a key strategy for MSMEs to move forward and grow.

This session will also witness the launch of the strategy document along with key highlights and recommendations from the report to strengthen MSMEs. This includes short-term fiscal relief measures to help them survive, medium-to-long-term structural reforms to revive the sector and help them thrive. It also proposes an actionable operationalisation plan, along with metrics to track and measure success, so that the benefits for the MSME sector can be sustained over several years.

Liquidity: The central role of access to finance for MSMEs to get back to life

Speakers: Anjuly Chib Duggal, Former Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Government of India; Nandita Ganpathy, CFO, Northern Arc Capital; D Vijay Kumar, Commissioner and Secretary, Planning & Finance, Government of Meghalaya; Hardika Shah, Founder & CEO, Kinara Capital; Geeta Goel, India Director, MSDF; RK Vijay Byrsaat, Founder, COLKS

Disruption in liquidity is one of the key pain points for the MSME sector, with around 57 percent of micro-enterprises having no cash reserves and 65 percent dipping into their personal savings to manage operations. This session will focus on localised communication of government schemes, ways to unlock access for new to credit entrepreneurs and the crucial role of access to finance for MSMEs for short- and long-term survival. Chaired by Anjuly Chib Duggal, and with speakers including prominent investors, lenders, and government representatives, this session will offer unique perspectives on liquidity and ways for sectors and enterprises with strong fundamentals access liquidity to keep their businesses alive.

The Ease of Doing Business: Making it a reality

Speakers: Bhuvana Anand, Director, Research at Centre for Civil Society; Vini Mahajan, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Housing & Urban Development, Government of Punjab; Vikram Sood, Co-founder, Hungry Wheels; Arvind Sharma, Partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Manish Sabharwal, Chairman, TeamLease Services Limited.

With the pandemic disrupting businesses, the government rolled out a slew of measures for MSMEs such as single-window Covid helpdesk, automated release of consignments all over the country, provisional clearance of goods with preferential treatment without an original certificate of origin, personal hearing through videoconferencing and much more as a mighty push towards ease of doing business.

To further explore how ease of doing can be realised across the sector, this panel will deep-dive into factors such as compliance digitisation and strengthening MSME associations, among others, with the aim to create an enabling rather than inhibiting business environment for MSMEs to bounce back. This panel will be chaired by Manish Sabharwal.

Creating An Encouraging Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

Speakers: Mekin Maheshwari, Co-Founder, GAME and Founder of Udhyam Learning Foundation; Daniel Isenberg, CEO, Entrepreneurship Policy Advisors; Raj Gilda, Co-Founder, Lend-A-Hand India ; Julia Karst, Head of Project, GIZ India and Anand Deshpande, Founder, deAsra Foundation

Entrepreneurship can thrive only when it has a supportive and enabling ecosystem around it. To explore this notion further, and work towards building a dynamic entrepreneurship culture with new enterprises and foster growth, this session will discuss why school curricula should include entrepreneurship; the need for responsive local ecosystems; the structural improvements needed in infrastructure; public procurement; and contract enforcement; and much more. With imminent speakers such as Dan Isenberg and Julia Karst and Anand Deshpande among others, this session will give the audience a macro view of the ideal entrepreneurial ecosystem that can sustain and grow.

How can India capture the global export opportunity?

Speakers: Ramesh Mangaleswaran, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company; Srinivasan Srini, CFO and Executive Director Bosch India; Gunjan Krishna, Commissioner, Directorate of MSME, Government of Karnataka; Monalisha Borthakur, Founder, AmbyGold Manorama Foods

With the cost of doing business in countries like China rising, operating costs are going up, especially for manufacturers. This has led companies to diversify their business into other countries as they are more economical and safer in the long run. In this session, the speakers will deliberate upon India as an ideal destination for businesses, the proactive policies of Indian states to capitalise on this opportunity and ways to accelerate their development to identify policy and enterprise enhancement mechanisms to make India a global exporter.