FISME raises the bar even higher
Date : 31 Dec to 31 Dec 2011
Place : New Delhi

FISME raises the bar even higher

Event Details

2011 in Retrospect

FISME raises the bar even higher

The Federation of Indian Micro and Small and Medium Enterprises (FISME) continued its march towards deepening, widening and strengthening its network of stakeholders to achieve its mission: survival and growth of Indian MSMEs.   The year 2011 saw events scaling a new high -  its flagship events were attended by Heads of State, Ministers of several foreign countries, Central Ministers and  Chief Ministers of States on the one hand, while on the other, its pan-India geographical  spread of activities spanned an even wider area covering around 60 stations across 17 Indian states.  More importantly, it was able to push a key reform process during the year: a revival and closure mechanism for MSMEs.

The Government of India chose FISME to represent the Indian MSME sector for deliberations going into the formulation of the 12th Five Year Plan as also entrusted it to lead the MSME outreach activity for several Ministry of MSME schemes under the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme (NMCP). Foreign governments such as those of the European Union, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Slovak Republic and Denmark also identified FISME as the voice of Indian MSMEs. The icing on the cake came when global search giant Google Inc. picked FISME as their partner of choice for launching their initiative to get 500,000 Indian MSMEs online over the next three years by providing Indian MSMEs free websites with several useful features needed by businesses. As the year progressed, the Indian media too increasingly began to refer to FISME for all matters MSME. Read on.

FISME & Government of India

Over the years FISME, has increasingly been regarded by the Government of India as the progressive face of Indian MSMEs, especially those in the manufacturing sector. In the year 2011, FISME’s long years of effort at advocating MSME issues began to bear fruit in an unprecedented way. Here is why:

New model code for exit & insolvency likely in 2012

Way back in 1999, FISME under the then President Mr Dinesh Singhal, took up the issue of advocating a modern insolvency and bankruptcy code for MSMEs. Since then FISME has consistently worked on the issue culminating in the publication of a Policy Paper on the subject in 2009. In the same year, the task force on MSMEs set up by the Prime Minister took cognition of FISME’s efforts and constituted a specific sub-group on Exit and Insolvency. FISME was nominated on the sub-group and was asked to make a submission. The final report of the sub-group upheld FISME’s stance and the PM’s Task Force concurred and recommended initiation of a process to enact a new Model Insolvency Act to address MSME issues. FISME’s 12-year struggle for such legislation came to fruition in 2011 with the federation being entrusted to draft proposed amendments to the MSMED Act, 2006. During the year, Amarchand Mangaldas, on behalf of FISME, made a presentation on a second improved draft before the Development Commissioner, Ministry of MSME and officials of other ministries including the Law Ministry. Based on the feedback received, Amarchand Mangaldas is now preparing the final draft on proposed amendments to the MSMED Act. Thus the year 2012 is very likely to see the successful culmination of a yug-long FISME struggle to get a new model code for exit and insolvency put in place for the benefit of Indian MSMEs.

FISME sole MSME representative in 12th FYP formulation

In April 2011, FISME was nominated to the Steering Committee on Industry for the formulation of the 12th Five Year Plan under the aegis of the Planning Commission as the sole representative of the MSME Sector in India. Besides FISME, the only other Industry bodies so nominated were CII, FICCI and ASSOCHAM who are primarily representatives of big industry. During the year, FISME representatives were included and participated vigorously under the leadership of the President Mr V.K. Agarwal in all the six issue/sector specific working groups constituted under the Industry Steering Committee. This was a major recognition of FISME as India’s primary representative of the MSME sector.

Big role for FISME in NMCP

View of a design orientation programme A QMS/QTT awareness programme in progress
The Ministry of MSMEs had launched the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme during the 11th Plan period to boost the competitiveness of Indian MSMEs. FISME was chosen as the primary MSME outreach vehicle for implementation of various schemes under the NMCP. FISME has been playing a very significant role in all the schemes that have been operationalized so far such as the Design Clinic Scheme, the Quality Management Standard & Quality Technology Tools (QMS/QTT) Awareness Programme and the IPR Awareness & Facilitation Scheme. During the year, FISME organised 9 Design Awareness Programmes in Ludhiana, Jaipur, Bhopal, Indore, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bangalore, Vellore and Cuddalore (see map). Similarly, FISME organised 19 QMS/QTT awareness programmes (see map) in Burhanpur (MP), Coimbatore, Singampunari, Madhurai (all in Tamil Nadu), Kottayam, Alapuzha (both Kerala), Chandrapur, Yavatmal (Maharashtra), Tuticorin, Virdudhachalam (both Tamil Nadu), Jabalpur ( Madhya Pradesh), Kolkata (West Bengal), Hyderabad (Andhra Pradehs), Nagpur ( Maharashtra), Krishnagiri, Nagari, Karur (all in Tamil Nadu), Kolkata (West Bengal), Dindigul Tamil Nadu). FISME also organised a stakeholder consultation workshop on IPR Exchange in New Delhi in December, 2011.

Government-MSME interface

During the year FISME helped the government to interact with MSMEs on different issues. In January 2011, FISME organised an interactive session between MSMEs and the Department of Defence Production under the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on indigenisation of defence production. Some 60 selected MSME suppliers participated and gave their feedback to the department in a session chaired by Gyanesh Kumar, Joint Secretary, MoD. Similarly, on the request of the Secretary, Ministry of MSME, FISME organised an interactive session with industry leaders in Bangalore in February 2011.

FISME & Global bodies

Over the years, foreign governments and multilateral institutions such as the Unctad, Unido, Unescap, DFID and GIZ to name a few, have increasingly recognised FISME as the primary outreach vehicle for the Indian MSME sector. The year 2011 was no different.

Research & Innovation initiative of the European Union

The European Union and its member states partnered with various industry organisations and with FISME primarily to reach Indian MSMEs to hold a series of information seminars in 27 research and innovation hotspots throughout India to raise awareness about the opportunities that Europe can offer for research and innovation cooperation. This large-scale and first-ever combined exercise in June 2011, involved over 100 presentations by 26 Science and Technology Counsellors and representatives of research organisations from Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom, as well as from the Delegation of the European Union, the European Business and Technology Centre, and the European Research Council. Six speakers came for this campaign from Europe. Among them were the Chief Technology Adviser at Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation and the senior Science Adviser to the Academy of Finland. The events under this initiative were hosted by 11 universities and research organisations in Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Jammu, Jodhpur, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mandi, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Patna, Pune, Roorkee, Shillong, Thiruvananthapuram and Vellore. Some 3,300 participants registered for the 27 events and many of them were Indian MSMEs who were roped in thanks to the efforts of FISME.

Rwanda & Sri Lanka rope in FISME for road shows

Rwanda has been sending government and business delegations to India to attract Indian investors to the African country. This year Rwanda decided to partner FISME for organising three road shows in Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai in October 2011. All the road shows were extremely successful in attracting micro, small and medium enterprises and those who attened participated enthusiastically. Similarly, Sri Lanka took the help of FISME to organise a road show in December 2011 to promote the Sri Lanka Expo 2012 – an international trade fair to be held in Colombo in March 2012.

FISME arranges B2B meetings

Business delegations from the Slovak Republic and Denmark visited India and held business to business meetings with Indian MSMEs with the help of FISME. While the Slovak delegation came in April 2011, the Danish delegation was in Delhi in September 2011. In May 2011, FISME helped arrange more than 70 B2B meetings for 8 visiting EU biotech companies in Bangalore.

GIZ takes FISME help for climate change training

German international cooperation organisation GIZ took FISME’s help to organise an awareness-cum-capacity building programme in December 2011.

FISME & Global Giants

When a private sector global giant such as Google decided to launch a major initiative among Indian MSMEs their natural choice was who else but FISME. In one of their biggest and exclusive initiatives for Indian MSMEs titled getindiaonline Google partnered FISME as their outreach vehicle of choice. Under the initiative Goolge would be offering 500,000 Indian MSMEs a host of services free of cost including setting up of business websites over a three year period.

FISME & Media

In 2011 the Indian media, hitherto somewhat negligent of Indian MSMEs began to refer to FISME on all matters MSME. Top notch international news agencies such Reuters and Al Jazeera interviewed the President and Secretary General for their views on the RBI’s repeated interest rate hikes and the depreciation of the rupee respectively. FISME’s stance on the policy on FDI in multi-brand retail created a media clamour leading to a policy tweak on the part of the government. As the year progressed there was a noticeable increase in the frequency with which media representatives contacted FISME for its views on various issues. Media coverage of FISME press statements and events also saw a marked improvement.
 

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