Former Cabinet Secretary Prabhat Kumar to head Hi-Power Committee to draft the policy: Kalraj Mishra

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Ministry has decided to come out with a comprehensive policy for MSMEs, which will be drafted by a high powered committee to be headed by former cabinet secretary Prabhat  Kumar. 

Announcing this, Shri Kalraj Mishra, Union minister for MSME said the committee will submit its report as early as possible. 

At the moment there is no integrated approach for the development of MSME despite the fact that it accounted for 40 per cent of India’s manufacturing and 45 per cent of exports. “The idea is to integrate various policies pertaining to the sector and come out with one comprehensive policy,” Mishra said after launching a new web portal http://smepost.com/, which is dedicated to celebrate the good work done by MSMEs in the country.

Once the MSME draft policy is readied by Prabhat Kumar, it will be open for public debate before finalizing the policy, Mishra said. 

Mishra said the decision to have a comprehensive policy was taken after MSME Board meeting in which 83 small scale industry associations participated from all over the country. All of them suggested that there was a crying need for such a policy as at the moment there is no single policy for MSMEs. 

The Prabhat Kumar committee will also take into consideration all the suggestion, which have already been made by the small scale industry associations. The associations have emphasized the need for integration of the MSMEs  requirement of raw material, capital, manufacturing and marketing. These will  be critical inputs in the MSME policy formulation, Mishra said.

Comprehensive MSME policy to integrate sectoral supports and invite public consultation following drafting by a high-powered committee. A high-powered committee chaired by former Cabinet Secretary Prabhat Kumar will draft a comprehensive MSME policy to integrate existing measures affecting MSMEs-covering access to raw material, capital, manufacturing and marketing-and produce a unified policy framework. The draft will be opened to public debate and will incorporate suggestions from industry associations emphasizing integrated supply chain, finance, production and market-access solutions.