Govt committed to boost competitiveness of MSMEs: Mishra

Union Minister Kalraj Mishra today said the government is committed towards enhancing the competitiveness of MSMEs to enable them to face the challenges ahead in view of global competition.
MSME sector contributes 8 per cent of GDP and accounts for around 40 per cent of the total exports and around 45 per cent of the manufacturing output.
As per the Fourth All India Census of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, total number of Enterprises of the MSME sector is 361.76 lakh of which 15.64 are registered Enterprises. The sector provides employment to 805.24 lakh persons. MSME sector is the largest job provider after agriculture.

Mishra was also presented a dividend cheque of Rs 15.19 crore for the year 2013-14 by National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), a Mini Ratna Company under the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) Ministry.
The Minister applauded the role of NSIC in providing integrated support services to MSMEs with respect to marketing, technology, credit and information support. He appreciated the fact that NSIC has been supplementing the availability of raw material at competitive rates to a large number of MSMEs all over the country.
The dividend cheque was presented by NSIC CMD Ravindra Nath in the presence of MSME Secretary and other officials of the Ministry.

Nath informed that this is the highest dividend ever paid by NSIC. He also said that the Corporation has done an overall business of Rs 17,444 crore in 2013-14, posting a 25 per cent growth from its previous year, while its Gross Income has gone upto Rs 418.04 crore registering a growth of 22 per cent and Profit before Tax for the year was Rs 114.71 crore posting an increase of 24 per cent from the previous year.