Orissa govt to develop four MSME clusters

The Orissa government has decided to develop four clusters under the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme (NMCP) being implemented by the Union ministry for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).

These clusters, included in the Lean Manufacturing Programme (LMP) component of the NMCP, are the granite cluster in Ganjam, the plastic cluster in Balasore, the sponge iron cluster in Rourkela and the Trishakti stone carving handicrafts cluster located at Khurda.

The National Productivity Council (NPC) has been entrusted to provide the required consultancy to these clusters for improving their quality and productivity.

These clusters are among the 100 clusters which are to be taken up under the NMCP across the country in the first phase.

Sources said that the programme will kick-start in these four clusters by the end of this month. At least 10 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will come together to form a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), which will be in charge of running the programme in the clusters concerned.

While four of the 20 clusters located in different parts of the state have been selected under the NMCP, the remaining 16 have been asked to prepare project proposals under the scheme. This will be sent to the Union MSME ministry in the next phase.

“If the initiative succeeds, the product quality, productivity, shop floor management and inventory management of the SMEs will improve dramatically,” a senior official of the state industry department told Business Standard.

The Union government had announced formulation of NMCP in 2005, with the aim of supporting SMEs in their endeavour to become competitive and adjust to the pressure arising out of liberalisation and moderation of tariffs. About Rs 276 crore is proposed to be spent under the programme.

In a separate initiative, the Orissa government has embarked on a “cluster mapping” exercise to attain optimum growth of the existing clusters and to identify the possible clusters in the state. This includes measures for the development of handicrafts clusters, small and medium enterprise clusters and cottage industries clusters.