ni-msme to set up CoE

The National Institute for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (ni-msme) will shortly establish a Centre of Excellence for the unorganised sector.

This would come up at a cost of Rs 1 crore at the Hyderabad premises and will support research, training programmes and consultancy services for promotion of service enterprises, said its director general Chukka Kondaiah.

Speaking at the inauguration of a national seminar on 'promotion of service enterprises' here on Thursday, he said the proposed centre will work on formulating policy guidelines for the enterprises.

There are no clear policies now to promote the unorganised sector, which is a component of the SME sector. New faculty will be appointed for the centre. This will also have a need-based evaluation centre and will attempt to attend to labour-related problems in the unorganised sector.

The opportunities in service sector relating to tourism, hospitality, health, transport, communications, entertainment, food procession and other fields are increasing by the day. About 20 million enterprises are operating in the country and are providing employment to at least 40 million people.

The unorganised sector contributed 55 per cent to the GDP and there is scope for increasing the employment to about 60 million with a focussed approach in promoting identified sectors, he said.