Srinagar: The PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Jammu and Kashmir State Industrial Development Corporation (J&K SIDCO), in an endeavor to foster growth of start-ups and entrepreneurship in Jammu and Kashmir, jointly organized a webinar on schemes of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), Credit Rating and Alternative Source of Raising Finance for MSMEs of the Union territory.
Principal Secretary Industries and Commerce, Ranjan Prakash Thakur, who presided over the event, said that the Industries department is all set to implement Central Incentive Schemes, Land Allotment policy, industrial development scheme for the UT, rules and guidelines, Single Window clearances and related programmes amid strict observance of all preventive protocols and SOPs regarding Covid-19. “Although the prevailing pandemic has slowed down the industrial progress but the department is working hard to tackle with the crisis simultaneously while ensuring growth of business in the UT”, he maintained.
Thakur highlighted the significance of SIDBI’s role towards developing and financing micro, small and medium enterprises and hoped that the financial institution would greatly help the MSMEs of J&K to grow to the fullest. “We are ushering in a new era of industrial revolution with launch of one of the most lucrative industrial schemes ever in the history of our country”, he asserted.
Earlier, Senior Vice President PHDCCI, Pradeep Multani, said that J&K has overcome many business challenges winning the market with active support from the government. He said that this webinar is just one step forward towards honouring the New Industrial Development Scheme of J&K. “We will explore the scope for increasing financing from alternative sources and submit any resulting proposals to the Department of Industries and Commerce of J&K”, he added.
Managing Director, J&K SIDCO, Mohammad Haroon, said that SIDCO would be privileged to be associated with PHDCCI J&K and organising more such interactive and informative webinars for much needed growth of MSMEs of the UT.
Haroon highlighted the credit rating problems being faced by MSMEs of J&K emphasizing the need of making substantial credit available for the entrepreneurs. He said that availability of Fintech, SIDBI and other alternate sources of finances for MSMEs is essential.
Former President and Mentor of MSME Mentoring & Guidance Centre, PHDCCI, Anil Khaitan, mentioned about the alternate sources of funding having potential to significantly bridge the funding gap and are able to change the way the MSME sector accesses credit. He said that finance is the basic need of every company but due to lack of awareness, MSMEs are not able to avail the benefit of funding schemes of government and banks. PHD Chamber has created a MSME Mentoring and Guidance Centre to enlighten MSMEs about such schemes and extend help to them to avail benefit of such schemes, he added.
Chairman PHDCCI, Kashmir, Baldev Singh Raina, elaborated the key objective of the session stating that this would serve as a big platform for devising ways to foster the growth of start-ups and entrepreneurship in the UT. The webinar also aimed to disseminate and discuss various schemes and facilities introduced by the government as well as by SIDBI and NBFCs. The businesses in J&K need awareness and handholding to avail the benefits from various financial institutions of the country.
Chairman PHDCCI, Jammu, Rahul Sahai, moderated the entire session excellently and also took questionnaires from the audiences to the elite panel of experts of the session. He said that all MSMEs should avail loan from SIDBI as it is a very start up/MSME friendly bank aiding the small traders.
General Manager SIDBI, Chandigarh, Rahul Priyadarshi, presented an overview of SIDBI and explained in detail the key products of SIDBI. He told that SIDBI has entered into an MoU with PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industries to provide financial assistance to its members through which the Chamber would recommend its MSMEs seeking financial assistance to SIDBI with a pre-designed Recommendation Sheet for Term Loans up to Rs. 5 crore.
Director Industries, Kashmir, Nazim Khan, gave a detailed presentation on role and function of Industries department in Kashmir terming the department as enabler for various government schemes. He mentioned various components of New Industrial Development Scheme and PMEGP.
Director Industries, Jammu, Anoo Malhotra, gave a detailed presentation on role and function of Industries department in Jammu and thanked PHDCCI and SIDCO J&K for organizing the webinar. She stated that such events will definitely play an important role towards transformation of MSMEs with customized schemes for the enterprises. She also pointed out that we need to organize more awareness programmes to sensitize the entrepreneurs regarding all these available financial institutions of the country.
Former Chairman-Cum-Managing Director NSIC Limited, Dr. H P Kumar, strongly recommended that the MSMEs which are not being provided credit facility or loans by the financial institutions should be reported to Ministry of MSME. He added that UT government needs to open a grievances online portal so that these entrepreneurs are heard through ministry of MSME and will not be deprived of the finances.
Chairman MSME Committee PHDCCI, Mohit Jain, highlighted the active role PHDCCI MSME Committee is playing for the benefit of MSME sector and would like to be associated with such informative webinars on Pan India basis.
Other eminent speakers of the webinar included Neermoy Shah from India Ratings and Research, Akshay Babbar, Regional Head Sales, from M1xchange, Muhammad Shafi Tramboo, PHDCCI Expert Chair Industries and Commerce, Kashmir, Kuldeep Gupta, Co-Chairman, PHDCCI-Jammu, Showket Choudhary, PHDCCI-Kashmir, Prem Diwan, Executive Member PHDCCI Jammu, Himayu Wani, Executive Member PHDCCI Kashmir, Lalit Mahajan, President BBIA Jammu and Dr. Ankur Gupta, Director MIET Jammu.
