RBI holds Empowered Committee meeting on MSMEs

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 30: The 35th Empowered Committee (EC) meeting on Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) was held today at RBI, Jammu.
The meeting was chaired by N K Sahu, Regional Director for J&K, RBI, Jammu while   S C Sharma, GM, RBI,   initiated the discussions.  The Regional Director explained that main purpose of holding the periodic EC meetings was to facilitate accelerated growth of MSMEs in the State and also to remove bottlenecks, which hinder the smooth flow of credit to the sector. He added that the EC afforded an opportunity of direct communication/interaction between various stakeholders i.e. Government, bankers, regulators, industry associations etc.
He highlighted the role being played by MSMEs in employment generation, exports, traditional handicraft and handloom industry of the State etc. He also reiterated that large potential is still untapped in the State and there was a need to increase the credit flow to the sector by raising awareness about various facilities and schemes available to the entrepreneurs from the Government of India, banks and State Government and the responsibility lay with all the stake holders concerned.
The House was informed that the advances to Micro Small Enterprises (MSE) sector increased from Rs 10219.31 crore as on September 30, 2015 to Rs. 10979.50 crore as on September 30, 2016, registering an increase of 7.44 percent growth (year on year) basis. Further, the number of units, which stood at 280145 as on September 30, 2015 increased to 302610 units as on September 30, 2016, registering 8.02 percent growth on a year on year basis. A detailed presentation on the credit flow scenario in the State relating to the MSME sector, as at the close of September 30, 2016, was made by R B Gupta, AGM, RBI.
Verinder Sharma, Director, MSME (DI);  Dr Mushtaq Ahmed, Jt  Director, I&C, Jammu;   Vinay Kumar, Director KVIC;   Showkat Ahmad, DGM, JKSFC and   Narjay Gupta, Vice President SLBC   attended the meeting.
The meeting was also attended by DGM (O), SBI, Circle Head, PNB, Vice President, J & K Bank, Head Key Accounts, HDFC Bank, Cluster Head, ICICI Bank, AGM, Canara Bank, Incharge SIDBI, Jammu and representatives from Federation of Industries, Jammu, Association of Industries, Jammu, FCIK, Srinagar.