Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Dinsha J Patel on Tuesday experienced firsthand the suffering faced by the people of the state on a daily basis.
In the city for the inauguration of a National Programme at the ni-msme and the second floors of D,E and F blocks of the guest house on the sprawling 20-acre National Institute for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (ni-msme) campus, Mr Patel was forced to wait for more than 20 minutes to deliver his speech after a power failure.
Mr Patel had arrived at 11 AM, the scheduled time for the inauguration of the Programme and the subsequent inauguration the building blocks meant to house trainees from across the globe.
After inaugurating the blocks, Mr Patel was forced to wait in the lobby of the newly inaugurated blocks since the elevators were not working due to lack of electricity.
He finally took the stairs to make his way to the auditorium to deliver his speech, where national and international delegates awaited him.
The auditorium was almost in darkness since the power supply had failed and the absence of any functional generators added to the discomfiture of the authorities.
Mr Patel had to listen attentively to the speech delivered by MSME Secretary Uday Kumar Varma and Institute Director General since the mikes were not functioning.
The two officials were out of wind by the time they finished their speeches at the top of their voices to make themselves heard.
Fortunately for Mr Patel, the electricity supply was restored just in time for him to deliver his speech through the public address system.
The MoS had earlier released a book ‘Entrepreneurship Development-Experiences in Institution Building’ by Dr Chukka Kondaiah, the Institute’s Director General.
Mr Patel in his speech said that, “the National Institute for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises for its committed efforts in creating awareness and promote MSMEs in India and in other countries as well, has also imparting training to prospective entrepreneurs and officers of promotional agencies for the last five decades.”
He said that, “The Micro and Small Enterprise sector has been playing a vital role in economic development and employment generation. To enhance the competitiveness of MSE sector, our Government enacted the MSMED Act in the Parliament which came into operation from October 2, 2006.”
The MoS expressed his satisfaction over the growth of the Institute by saying that, “I am happy to know that this institution has been contributing for the growth of MSMEs through its committed services of training, research, consultancy, information and education programmes.”
He added, “As India is a very large country, with predominant need to be provided with sustainable employment opportunities. Government of India has been laying emphasis on self employment and many schemes have been initiated both for the rural and also for urban youth through various Central Ministers. We need to concentrate to develop first generation entrepreneurs particularly in rural or backward areas in order to reduce the regional imbalances and promote entrepreneurship among unemployed group. I am happy to note that ni-msme has been earnestly striving for the growth of enterprises through its activities.”
Mr Patel pointed out that, “Special schemes like, Rajiv Udyami Mitra, Prime Ministers’ Employment Generation Mission and assistance to training institutions through the scheme of partner institutions, under the Ministry of MSME, have been specially designed to encourage self employment in a big way to create employment generation through small, and micro enterprises.”
He also congratulated Dr Kondaiah and his team for the book.