India SME 100 Awards presented to top performing small & medium enterprises;
Government lays emphasis on MSME to create jobs and promote growth.
India’s top performing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) were honoured with the Bank of India SME 100 Awards in Mumbai on Saturday night.
The Lok Sabha Speaker Smt. Sumitra Mahajan and the Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Shri Kalraj Mishra presented the awards aimed at promoting competitive spirit among the SMEs.
Speaking on the occasion, MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra highlighted the thrust laid by the NDA government for job creation mainly through the self-employment route. He said, the government attaches great importance to skill development and informed that a separate Ministry is being established for this purpose. Shri Mishra further observed that MSME, though conveys smallness of size, its contribution to the economy and empowerment of people is very large.
In her address, the Lok Sabha Speaker Smt. Sumitra Mahajan stressed on quality consciousness and asked the Indian entrepreneurs to produce best quality products. ‘Brand India should be known by its quality’ she added. Smt. Mahajan termed small and medium enterprises, the ‘engines of economic growth’.
It was an onerous task for the jury to select the 100 winners from amongst more than 63,000 nominations received from across India. While the financial indicators of growth, performance and financial strength were keenly evaluated, equal emphasis was also given to the non-financial indicators covering innovation, international outlook, human capital and corporate governance. Punjab, a state known for vibrant small scale industries, won the highest number of awards (37), followed by 17 from Gujarat, 9 from Andhra Pradesh and 8 from Karnataka.
The SME 100 Awards presented by Bank of India are the initiative of the India SME Forum, and supported by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises of Government of India.
MSMEs role in the economy
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises contribute nearly 8 percent of the country’s GDP, 45 percent of the manufacturing output and 40 percent of the exports. They provide the largest share of employment after agriculture. Widely dispersed across the country, SMEs are the nurseries of innovation and entrepreneurship.
The government has identified MSME as thrust area for accelerating economic growth and employment generation. In the Budget 2014, the Finance Minister has announced the setting up of Rs 10,000 crore venture capital fund to act as a catalyst for start ups and new enterprises. The Government has also decided to establish District Level Incubation and Acceleration Centres to promote entrepreneurship.
PIB Mum | IVJ / AS / SLP
