India is in a position to export sanitisers to the world: Nitin Gadkari
Gadkari, on the occasion of International MSME Day, said that India will win the war against coronavirus but it will take some time to win the economic war.
Union Minister for MSMEs Nitin Gadkari has said that India is in a position to export sanitisers to the world since all sugar and ethanol factories have been encouraged to manufacture sanitisers. This has brought down the price of sanitisers from Rs 1,200 to Rs 160 per litre. He also said that India was importing PPE kits from China until a few months ago. Today, Indian MSMEs are manufacturing 5,00,000 PPE kits everyday.
He however said red tapism needs to be tackled in a big way for the country to progress.
He was speaking at the launch of ‘MSME Transformation Task Force’ constituted by Ravi Venkatesan, Founder of Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME) and chaired by Dr K.P Krishnan, former secretary, Government of India. A report released on the occasion has made recommendations for the revival of the MSME sector which contributes almost 30 percent to India’s GDP and deploys an equally large amount of workforce. The Chief Ministers of Punjab, Karnataka, and Meghalaya were also present at the launch.
Speaking after releasing the report on the occasion of International MSME Day on June 27, Gadkari said, “We will win the war against coronavirus but it will take longer to win the economic war.”
Gadkari said, “Digitisation is very important for MSMEs,” adding that this sector is very important for the Indian economy. “They (MSMEs) contribute 48 percent to India’s total exports and have created around 11 crore jobs.”
The report highlights that to survive the pandemic crisis, 70 percent of India’s MSMEs have to cut on their workforce. Further, estimates suggest that 20 to 40 percent of MSMEs could permanently close. In addition, 57 percent of the micro enterprises have no cash reserves and 65 percent of the enterprises now rely on personal savings to keep their operations afloat.
The report notes some pragmatic and specific action plan to tackle issues such as liquidity, ease of doing business, and compliance concerns that have crippled the sector. The steps suggested in the report are aimed at reviving the MSMEs which can lead to the thriving and sustaining of the sector.
Edited by Javed Gaihlot