Maha finance minister calls for boosting SMEs to drive growth

Maharashtra finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar Monday said there is a need to boost small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and promote women entrepreneurs to drive the country's growth.

Speaking at the sixth Progressive Maharashtra Summit here, jointly organised by industry body Ficci and the state government, he said India needs to have a decentralised system to become a global leader and the SME sector is a big medium to achieve this target.

"If India has to become a global leader, there is a need to have a decentralised system in place. To achieve this goal, SME is a the most efficient medium. Also, there is a need to promote more and more women entrepreneurs," the minister said.

He said that the state government has taken a decision to increase the number of women entrepreneurs from nearly nine per cent at present to 20 per cent in the next few years.

"In India, 57 industrial houses contribute to nearly 25 per cent of the GDP. Similarly, out of the 134 crore population, just 25 people have properties worth Rs 38 trillion. These numbers may give a misleading estimation of the per capita income of the population. Therefore, we need to give impetus to the SMEs as this is a major employment generating sector," added Mungantiwar.

According to a report released by Ficci and SPJIMR, in December last year there are over 3.58 lakh MSMEs in the state, with an investment of Rs 85,362 crore, generating around 27.55 lakh employment.

The report further said that the challenge for the state as it transforms into a USD 1 trillion economy, is to ensure that it does not experience transformation of a type which may be called 'jobless economy'.

"The creation of jobs becomes prime since jobless growth diluted the benefits that emanate from high growth and in fact would result in exacerbation of existing inequities," the report said.

It said based on estimates, the number of jobs that needs to be created to transform the state to a USD 1-trillion economy, ranges from 0.49 billion to 1.44 billion.