Skill, labour, and talent for MSMEs: The Maharashtra government has been approved Rs 600 crore by SIDBI under the SIDBI Cluster Development Fund (SCDF) to upgrade or revive its industrial training institutes (ITIs) and polytechnics run by the Directorate of Vocational Education and Training under the Department of Skills, Employment, Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The ITIs and polytechnics, generally located near industry clusters, support MSME clusters by providing trained and skilled manpower.
The demand for skilled manpower in Maharashtra has sharply increased due to newly launched schemes of government such as Make in India, Digital India, Smart Cities and Clean India Mission, SIDBI said in a statement. The ITIs are getting ready to take up the new task and would play an important role in meeting the skilled manpower demand of the MSMEs generated through these new schemes, SIDBI said.
“The active participation of state government-run institutions through their upgradation and revival, in the journey of MSME development, shall provide the necessary impetus to fulfilling the much-desired need of availability skilled manpower of the MSME ecosystem and shall facilitate achieving a higher efficiency by the system,” said Sivasubramanian Ramann, Chairman and Managing Director, SIDBI.
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SIDBI has also been setting up Project Management Units (PMUs) across various states to develop local MSME ecosystems. The principal financial institution for MSMEs said PMUs in coordination with SIDBI and state governments have given policy/scheme inputs on Innovation Voucher Programme scheme, New Entrepreneur cum Enterprise Development Scheme, undertaken rapid profiling of migrant labors options for entrepreneurship in PMU states etc. These states included Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujrat, Haryana, Maharashtra, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Tamil Nadu.
SIDBI’s engagement with Maharashtra and other states was based on the recommendations by the Expert Committee on MSMEs headed by UK Sinha for MSME development and promotion including the use of Priority Sector Shortfall (PSS) funds. This was intended to create a low-cost lending window for state governments for infrastructure projects in clusters.
SCDF was announced by SIDBI in August last year with the Reserve Bank of India’s support to attend to the hard infrastructure facilities in clusters. SIDBI said it has already accorded an in-principal sanction of more than Rs 5,968 crores for the development and upgradation of industry cluster projects to various state governments and union territories.