The National Small Industries Corporation shares is supporting MSMEs with integrated services like marketing, technology, finance to name a few. We spoke to the PSU's director (P&M), P. Udhayakumar to understand how he plans to make it possible through exciting new digital initiatives like a technology bank, enterprise-to-enterprise co-operation, and joint ventures.
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Interaction by B. Swaminathan

Started with the objective to promote MSMEs in commercial facets, the National Small Industries Corporation functions effectively to promote, aid and foster the growth of micro, small and medium enterprises. In an exclusive chat with CMR, P. Udhayakumar, Director (P&M), said, that the organization is giving importance for digital in all their projects and SME reach outs.

“We are a commercial organization mainly to promote and support the MSME Sector by providing integrated support services encompassing Marketing, Technology, Finance and other services. Recently we crossed a business turnover of around INR 22,457 crores by facilitating MSMEs which I could call as our mile-stone”, Udhayakumar said.

The Digital Drive

NSIC reaches out to more than 1.5 lakh MSMEs directly and is maintaining a database of the same across India. PSUs are making mandatory procurements of 20% through MSMEs, and NSIC will enable these small entities to go digital through the new initiatives. “As Technology is becoming one of the key aspects of growth of MSMEs, we believe small enterprises need to enhance their technology strength and strategy in addition to financial, marketing and operational strategies. We also ask them to adopt the latest technology in the market that helps integrate their operations with their environment, customers and suppliers.”, Udhayakumar added.

Technology Bank

To cater to the technology needs of SMEs, NSIC is planning to create a technology bank which will be having a complete list of hardware and software needed for functioning of MSMEs. Any SMEs wanting to procure a product can find it in the databank which will be created soon. As the discussion is already on and suggestions are sought from agencies like DRDO, CISR and will be completed with an MoU with them. All such procurement will happen through a single point registration of vendors in the portal.

The existing B2B portal which NSIC owns will also be scaled up. As technology is becoming a key need of micro and small companies, this portal will be an aggregation of services. “Many SMEs are unaware of which technology to buy both in terms of IT and in terms of machinery. Our technology bank will give them a wide variety of option that will work as an advisory for them”, Udhayakumar averred. The same will also be enabled with online payment gateways.

In addition to this, NSIC has also established Software Technology cum Business Parks at New Delhi and Chennai for providing space to small and medium enterprises in software development and to IT/ITES/MSME units not registered with STPI or units that are falling under the overall definition of MSME as per the guidelines of Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

Future Plans

Some of the key activities of the forum are to reach out to as many industry associations as possible through 160 offices of the organization across India. “Some of the other plans include creating and facilitating enterprise-to-enterprise cooperation, joint ventures for MSMEs in both domestic and international markets. We are planning to conduct regular events and sessions for various associations and will give financial assistance for the forums.” Udhayakumar concluded.