The State government will be taking steps to ensure that the new micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that were launched as part of the entrepreneurship year scheme are sustainable and continue functioning, Industries Minister P. Rajeeve told the Assembly on Monday.
Interns appointed in local bodies would inspect all new ventures from next month onwards to identify issues they were facing and address them, he said. The technically qualified interns were appointed last year to coordinate ground-level activities for the Industries department’s campaign to aid the launch of one lakh MSMEs. As per the figures till March 1, a total of 1,34,558 MSMEs were launched in Kerala over the past one year.
Mr. Rajeeve said that at the national level, 30 to 40% of the MSMEs stopped operation within the first year. To reduce this, MSME clinics were being organised in all districts to address economic, technological, or marketing issues. A panel of experts and institutions were part of the clinics to handhold the fledgling initiatives. As part of plans to market the products from the new ventures, separate corners would be allocated in cooperative storerooms and Consumerfed shops for local products. Such products would also be sold through special counters in the ration shops in the respective panchayat.
On allegations regarding existing ventures being counted as new, he said that these were related to a handful of cases of establishments that were running without licences that applied for the same this year. He said that more than ₹10,000 crore of MSME loans were disbursed in the current financial year, compared to the previous year, which was an indication of the kind of change that has happened in the sector. The activities of the past one year had given a lot of confidence to aspiring entrepreneurs, he said.
