Recognizing the contribution of MSMEs to a country's economy, United Nations Assembly, on 6th April 2017 declared 27th June as 'Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Day.' MSMEs day is dedicated to accolade all the small-sized businesses in the developing countries, commemorating their vast impact on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Micro, small and medium enterprises account for a vital role in uplifting most of the developing countries all over the world. Not only this, they are the backbone of all kinds of businesses. Even, every business starts with a small investment. So, we can say that the initialization of a business starts as an MSME. For a developing country, alleviating poverty is a big challenge that can be coped up with the employment provided by MSMEs.
Importance of MSMEs-Need of the Hour
As per data, MSMEs contribute more than 55% of GDP in developed countries along with 65% of total employment. For developing and underdeveloped countries too, MSMEs are major shareholders of 60-70% of the GDP. They act as a multiplier factor in economic growth. Since MSMEs includes more labour-intensive production, it is estimated that MSMEs give employment to around 2.2 billion people globally. MSMEs augment GDP growth due to flexible operations, low capital requirement and less requirement of highly advanced machinery.
Resolution adopted by UN General Assembly on 6th April 2017
UN assembly recognized the importance of fostering the development of MSMEs as well as their promotion in the national and international market, to achieve SDGs faster. General Assembly, during its seventy-fourth plenary meeting, reasserted the following resolutions:
- 70/1 of 25 September 2015 – ‘transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development.’
- 69/313 of 27 July 2015-‘Addis Ababa Action agenda of Third International Conference for Financing.’
- 53/199 of 15 December 1998 and 63/185 of 20 December 2006 entitled ‘Proclamation of International years.’
Subsequently, Assembly decided to declare 27th June as Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day and invited all the Member States and organizations to celebrate the day with due consideration. Also, the Member States were invited for the formalization of policy and regulations, in collaboration with the public and private sector and to assure the development of small businesses to the maximum possible extent. The cost required to meet the progress of MSMEs may be managed by voluntary contributions. All the micro businesses should be allowed micro-finance aid as well as industrial training if required.
The purpose of this action was to promote development-oriented policies which will provide a quality framework to Micro Small and Medium enterprises that would work in decent job creation and thereby, accelerating economic growth.
Major challenges in the survival of MSMEs
International business opportunities and digital navigation through the internet are possible for big businesses and large enterprises. But, for MSMEs, these are major challenges because they do not get easy access to a handful of investors. Due to this, MSMEs have to compromise with limited technology and cheap quality resources.
They have low production capacity as compared to those of large scale enterprises. Along with this, they also get downgraded soon due to ineffective marketing strategy and since they have a dearth of affordability of cost that skilled labour demand, there are constraints to their expansion.
Keeping in mind the above challenges, the UN celebrates MSME day on 27th June with a vision of uplifting the status of MSMEs, so that they can come ahead with their full potential to achieve sustained development in the country.
Empowering Indian Manufacturing: World MSME Day 2021 Virtual Conference
Machine Maker in partnership with its industry partners Nord Drivesystems, IG Drones, AMS India, and Rajamane Industries organized a virtual conference on 30th June 2021 which was very well appreciated by the industry. Captain Dibya Shankar Mishra, Honourable Minister of Industries of Energy, Industry, MSMEs and Home, Government of Odisha inaugurated the event and appealed to industries to go the extra mile to reach making our country the factory of the world.
The event had a registration of more than 1000 delegates, and the opening session was attended by Vijay Kalra, Head – Mahindra Institute of Quality, Reghu G IAS, Director – DTET Odisha, Rashmi Ranjan Mohapatra, President -TEAM, and Hari Shanker, Managing Editor of Machine Maker. Rajesh Nath, Managing Director of VDMA India presented the Business Climate Survey BRIC followed by a Panel Discussion on Indo German Collaborations moderated by Priya Rawat of Invest India and attended by Indradev Babu, Managing Director – UCAM India, PL Muthusekkar, Managing Director – Nord Drivesystems India, Bhavana Bindra, Managing Director – Rehau South Asia, Vijay S Beriwal, Chairman – Vidit Group & President of Institute of Indian Foundry Men, and Manoj Barve, Head – BVMW (Federation of German SMEs).
The technical session on Additive Manufacturing was moderated by Nishant Kashyap, Director of Truventor.AI, Rajiv J Dhawan, Regional Manager of AMS India. The final session on EV Motor Manufacturing and Indian MSMEs was moderated by Hari Shanker, and attended by Professor Kannan Lakshminarayan of IIT Madras, Rajendra Rajamane of Rajamane Industries, Suresh Todkar of Deogiri Electronics Cluster, and BVN Madhu of RIZEL Automotive. The event is now available online on Machine Maker YouTube Channel.
(With inputs & research from Abhinav Pandey)
