Teri, Sidbi to facilitate Chd engineering cluster

It’s going to be an end to the ordeal for micro, small and medium enterprises in Chandigarh which missed business opportunities for want of information. Tata Energy and Resource Institute (Teri) will facilitate the implementation of a project by Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi), ‘Small and Medium Business Enterprises Financing and Development Project’, in the Chandigarh-Mohali-Panchkula engineering cluster.

The project focuses on market-based development of the cluster through strengthening of various Business Development Service (BDS) providers.

According to Teri officials, they conducted a mapping exercise of the cluster and prepared an action plan for strengthening the BD providers and establishing economies of scales for their operations.

In order to enhance the facilitaties in Chandigarh, a website, ‘www.chandigarhbds.com’ was launched today that contains cluster information, details of BDS providers and information on various project activities.

According to Gunmala Suri, Reader UBS (University Business School) Punjab University and Director, Cluster Coordination Committee Chandigarh, the units were functioning well individually but there was a lack of coordination among themselves that hampered their growth.

She added that the web portal would act as a platform to identify, establish and support links between the BDS providers/consultants of the region and engineering enterprises.

The Chandigarh-Panchkula-Mohali cluster consists of over 1,000 units engaged in making fasteners, steel fabrication and machining.

According to President, Chandigarh Fastners’ Association A L Aggarwal there was the need of turnkey consultancy in India for SMEs. He added that over 350 fastner makers in Chandigarh could market under the same brand name if there was uniformity in the quality.

Aggarwal pointed out that Chandigarh had the largest cluster of fastners in Asia and most of the units were into exports. The introduction of good version of machines as was done in Far East Asian countries and knowledge sharing among themselves could help the Chandigarh fastner cluster to grow in value and volume, he added.