Orissa govt mulls 'barefoot managers' to assist MSMEs

The Orissa state government may soon recruit “bare foot managers” to provide various expert services to the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the state.

The state government coined this term, as a barefoot manager would be a youth with an ordinary background, preferably a graduate in any discipline, to handle multiple services, ranging from accounting to administration and supervision of MSMEs.

Unlike a suave B-school graduate, these managers would move in rural and semi-urban areas and assist the MSMEs in preparation of project profile, project evaluation, formulation of training, training-counseling, skill development and entrepreneurship development.

To train these managers, Institute of Entrepreneurship Development (IED), the nodal agency for the project, has decided to tie up with Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMT). IED has sought financial assistance from Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) to implement the scheme.

“The micro and small units lack the financial capability to engage experts to run their units. We intend to train a group of unemployed youths who will provide these services to the MSMEs at a nominal cost,” said Panchanan Dash, special secretary, industry department. This would also generate a lot of job opportunities, he added.

Sources said a survey would be conducted to assess the requirement of the MSMEs and then, people would be groomed to render services required by these units.

Food processing training centres
Meanwhile, IED has proposed setting up of three food processing training centres (FPTCs) in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Jagatsinghpur to the food processing industries ministry. Each centre requires a minimum investment of Rs 50 lakh. The food processing ministry would provide Rs 25 lakh for machineries, sources said.

FPTCs are proposed to be developed in public-private-partnership (PPP) mode. While the state government would provide the required infrastructure, their day-to-day operation and maintenance would be entrusted to a private agency.

About 30-40 entrepreneurs would be trained in each centre. Sources said initially, IED would manage these centres and private partners would be roped in at a later stage when more centres come up.