MSME Ministry seeks special fund for defence, pharma in 12th Plan

NEW DELHI: The MSME Ministry proposes to provide incentives to emerging entrepreneurs in defence, robotics and biotech sectors during the 12th Five-Year plan, a senior government official said.

"We have identified five to six new areas -- nanotechnology, biotechnology, defence and homeland security, food processing, IT related activities and pharma," Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Secretary Uday Kumar Varma said.

The Ministry has decided to facilitate the start-up MSMEs in these "crucial" areas with a special fund package during the five-year (2012-2017) period.

However, he didn't elaborate the details of the package. "...these sectors are of crucial importance. We will give a whole package...We are proposing in-principle, once Planning Commission agrees then details of the package can be worked out," the secretary said.

Varma said the idea is to make Indian MSMEs attractive, competitive and encourage new entrepreneurs in these fields.

"In the beginning all start-ups are MSMEs, not big in nature. If we can facilitate it through a Plan period, lot of people can be turned to entrepreneurs," he said.

Further, he said the ministry is proposing to restructure its Budget in five broad categories--credit, infrastructure, technology, skill-development and marketing.

"We want to reduce the number of programmes to rationalise things and make it simple," he said.

MSMEs contribute over 45 per cent to the country's industrial production and around 40 per cent to the total exports.

The sector contributes eight per cent to the country's Gross Domestic Product and employs 60 million people through 26 million enterprises in the country.