Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: As micro, smaller, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) look at progressively coming out of the pandemic effect, enabling them to generate a niche for themselves ahead will be difficult, MSME Secretary BB Swain stated on Thursday. Addressing a FICCI occasion on FMCG and retail, Swain stated “In the current times of heightened uncertainty, the question of enabling MSMEs to further carve out a niche for themselves is the challenging next step.” Moreover, overcoming the digital divide (for MSMEs) when complying with regulations will constantly be a ‘very very big’ challenge, Secretary noted.
However, he highlighted the value of organization transparency and efficiency along with economies of scale, and so forth. For scale. “Some features that are to be kept in mind are augmented transparency; enhanced efficiency; facilitating the ease with which business can be done; building economies of scale; and an efficient price discovery.”
The Covid-induced lockdown last year had impacted MSMEs considerably across the majority sectors when e-commerce gained traction as customers shifted to the digital channels for the buy of goods and services. Online marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Grofers, BigBasket, and other individuals had reported a steep enhance in shoppers and orders even as more retailers and kirana owners had been onboarded to cater to the on the net demand. The development in e-commerce was also visible in the government’s public procurement platform Government e-Marketplace (GeM) as the government had introduced a separate category for Covid-associated goods on the portal for sellers manufacturing Covid-associated healthcare gear and goods to connect straight with the government purchasers.
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“In the past one and half years the world witnessed pandemic-associated lockdowns and consequent closures of economic activities. This led to the growth of e-commerce across borders that further got accentuated. The progressive involvement of MSMEs in e-commerce, especially in the recent past, has really grown. The large number of providers registered at the GeM is a fine example of the same,” Swain added.
Arvind Mediratta, Chair FICCI Retail and Internal Trade Committee and Managing Director & CEO – METRO Cash & Carry India in his address at the occasion stated that the share of e-commerce in retail is anticipated to develop from 6 per cent of the total market place in FY 21 to practically 11 per cent by FY 26 when the share for modern day retail, which has seen some headwinds, will in all probability stay static. “The traditional trade continues to do very well. They have been extremely resilient during the crisis and have gained market share from 87.1 per cent to 88.8 per cent of the market.”
Despite substantial Covid effect on MSMEs, the government does not have official information on the quantity of MSMEs shut due to the pandemic. “As MSMEs are there in both formal and informal sector, data regarding temporary or permanent closure of the units are not maintained by the Government of India in Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME),” former MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari had stated in a written reply to a query in the Rajya Sabha in February this year. Likewise, in September 2020 as effectively, former MSME MoS Pratap Chandra Sarangi in the Rajya Sabha had stated that “no such record is available” for the quantity of MSME units shut down for the duration of the March-August 2020 period of the pandemic.