The Indian MSME sector is the backbone of the national economic structure and has unremittingly acted as the bulwark for the Indian economy, providing it resilience to ward off global economic shocks and adversities. With around 63.4 million units throughout the geographical expanse of the country, MSMEs contribute around 6.11% of the manufacturing GDP and 24.63% of the GDP from service activities as well as 33.4% of India's manufacturing output. They have been able to provide employment to around 120 million persons and contribute around 45% of the overall exports from India. The sector has consistently maintained a growth rate of over 10%. About 20% of the MSMEs are based out of rural areas, which indicates the deployment of significant rural workforce in the MSME sector and is an exhibit to the importance of these enterprises in promoting sustainable and inclusive development as well as generating large scale employment, especially in the rural areas.
SMEs and CII Membership: The membership portfolio of CII consists of 8500+ member companies, both from public and private sectors. 53% of the overall membership belongs to the manufacturing sector while 42% in the service sector. It has an additional indirect membership of over 2,00,000 companies from 240 national and regional sectoral associations. Out of these, around 126 are MSME associations. Around 67% of CII's membership falls in the Small and Medium Enterprises category who CII services through a network of 66 offices in India and 10 offices overseas.
The CII National MSME Council: CII places utmost importance to the development of Indian MSMEs which manifests itself in the advisory, consultancy, business facilitation and specialized services deployed by CII for enhancing the competitiveness of Indian MSMEs. The CII National MSME Council is an apex body monitoring the needs of Indian MSMEs and representing these concerns at various fora. The Council works closely with CII Regional MSME Sub-Committees and Regional and State Offices in realizing CII’s MSME development goals across all regions. The Council regularly engages with various government departments both at the central and state level as well industry members and experts to discuss the concerns of Indian MSMEs. It works with government and industry to raise the competitiveness of Indian MSMEs, and enhance the productivity levels of each sub-sector through adoption of best practices, knowledge management systems and appropriate technologies. The Council also monitors the credit and financing needs of MSMEs, and explores innovative ways to draw global investors to the sector. In addition, the Council plays a key role in strengthening India’s bilateral SME cooperation with developed and developing countries.
Programs and Initiatives for Transforming Indian MSMEs: In the recent years, the CII National MSME Council has undertaken some path breaking initiatives to transform the performance and growth prospects of Indian MSMEs. The most noteworthy amongst these include:
• CII Technology Facilitation Centre for MSMEs (TFC) (www.ciitfc.in)
• CII SME Finance Facilitation Centre (FFC) (www.mycii.in)
• CII Global SME Business Summit 2018 (www.ciisme.in)
• CII National Vendor Development Programme 2018 with PSEs
• Interactions with various Ministries and Government Departments especially with Ministry of MSME on various policy areas
