Tech upgrade, upskilling must for MSME success: TSIIC MD

Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) can achieve success through consistent technological upgrades and ongoing employee upskilling, said E V Narasimha Reddy, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC). He was addressing a gathering after inaugurating the sixth edition of MSME Summit here on Wednesday.

The summit was organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Telangana Chapter with a theme of ‘Making MSMEs future ready through digital transformation’. On the occasion, Narasimha Reddy shared information about several initiatives launched by the State government to encourage industries and asked the MSMEs to make use of the tech services for their advantage.

He briefed the audience about the unique initiatives of the State government - The Industrial Health Clinic, which is dedicated to examining and resolving challenges faced by struggling industries, including assessments of their technological and economic sustainability, along with providing crucial support. He also highlighted the availability of creches in Industrial Parks in their pursuit to encourage diversity.

D Chandra Sekhar, Additional Development Commissioner, Ministry of MSME, Government of India, highlighted the significance of various digital initiatives undertaken by the Centre like UPI portal, GEM portal and Udhyam Aadhar Registration. These initiatives include the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system, which directly credits LPG subsidies to beneficiaries.

Nitin Nair, Senior Vice President, Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) shared that their platform plays a significant role in simplifying the buying and selling processes for MSMEs. The non-profit company has onboarded more than 1.79 lakh sellers/ service providers having more than 1 crore stock keeping units (SKUs). The ONDC is witnessing over 1.5 lakh orders a day, he informed.

C Shekar Reddy, Chairman, CII Telangana, in his opening remarks, reiterated that about 60 per cent of the CII membership consisting of MSMEs and the State of Telangana has two Centre of Excellences which design activities benefiting the MSME sector. Across India, the CII has 9,000+ members and two-thirds of them are from the MSMEs that contribute 25 per cent to the country’s GDP, he said.

The summit featured a distinguished lineup of speakers, including S Sudhakar, Co-Chairman, CII Southern Region MSME, among others.