Vibrant Gujarat summit: Narendra Modi propagates 'Made-In-Gujarat' brand in manufacturing sector

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat government will start a special cell in industries department for promoting filing of patents by smaller companies, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi said in the SME convention during Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit. The government is also trying to promote 'Made In Gujarat-India' brand in the manufacturing sector, emulating the Japanese model.

"SMEs have been facing tough competition from Chinese manufacturers in the global market and they have to focus on contemporary technologies and research. Country's SMEs have grown at 19% while as Gujarat-based SMEs have grown at 85%," Modi said.

He emphasised innovation and patents through research and development for faster growth of SME companies. "We will start a special cell for SME's in the Industries department for their consistent growth and solving their problems," Modi said.

On the second day of the Summit, Modi stated that Gujarat has 72% share in new job creation in the country. "Gujarat has very low unemployment. However, political unemployment is very high in Gujarat for the last 15 years," he said.

Gujarat is home to over 3.5 lakh Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises across sectors like chemicals, dyes, intermediates, engineering, auto parts and machine tools amongst others and constitute 16% to state's manufacturing sector output.

State Industries Minister Saurabh Patel said that Gujarat is planning well in advance to provide infrastructure and thereby preempt bottlenecks for the growth of industry.