MSME sector largest contributor to India's GDP: Anup Pujari

The micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector is the single largest contributor to the nation's GDP, a senior official said today.

"MSME sector is important in two ways...First, because it contributes as the single largest source to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country, and second, which is more important, is that it is the most innovative among all the sectors," MSME Secretary Anup Pujari said during Switch-Asia Conference.

"Innovation essentially comes because in a big corporation, the innovative activities get diffused where as in a micro or small unit, the innovative activity is more focused, more linked to the actual problem that they face.

"This is true in India, this will be true in Bhutan and this will be true in Germany, everywhere," he said.

He was speaking at Switch-Asia, an international conference and networking event on the role of Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) towards building livelihoods in Asia.

"But as I mentioned, the event is important because it is networking. Networking would mean meeting each other, learning from each other and trying to share the best practises.

"Therefore, it is not necessary that every country, every enterprise must reinvent to win. We must try to share what other people have done and try to adopt and adapt that," Pujari said.

SCP has officially become a global Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), following the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in New York on September 25, 2015.

Switch-Asia is the largest programme funded by the European Union (EU) to promote SCP in Asia. It works across 16 Asian countries through more than 90 demonstration projects and policy support actions.

To date, 11 EU-funded Switch-Asia projects have been initiated in India that promote sustainable consumption and production practices in line with the agenda of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

The three-day event is organised by EU's Switch-Asia Programme with the support of India's Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises.

Johann Hesse, Head of Cooperation, Delegation of the European Union to India, stated, "Sustainable Consumption and Production puts the green economy in the spotlight.

Sustainable Consumption and Production reconciles growth with sustainability, showing how both can be achieved at the same time."

Switch-Asia projects, he said, "can play a critical role, by supporting micro, small and medium scale businesses and consumers not only to go green but also to increase their economic competitiveness.