MSMES are truly the wings beneath our winds, said R S Manku, Chairman and Managing Director of Andrew Yule. He was participating in the MSME Ease of Doing Business Initiatives organized by The Statesman in association with the State Bank of India at a city hotel this evening.

“50 per cent to 60 per cent of our procurement are from the MSMEs. We have 15 tea estates in Assam and north Bengal, units to manufacture industrial fans and transformers. We urge the owners of MSME units to join hands with Yule,” he said.

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“What Gandhiji had said about the cottage industry has now come to be developed as MSMEs,” he remarked.

Recollecting the long association between Andrew Yule and The Statesman, he said at the time of Independence Yule was the owners of 57 companies and had a large share in The Statesman. V Teja Deepak, executive director, WBSiDCL, MSME& T department, explained how the state government has helped the MSMEs sector through its various schemes.

He said: “There were 90 lakh MSME units in Bengal before the Covid-19 pandemic and now it must have reached I crore after the pandemic.”

Schemes like Shilper Samadhan has helped the MSME units immensely. The representatives of local banks, state government officials and the MSME applicants sit together and by using the digital platform, the time taken to give permission is reduced to a great extent. “Bengal is doing well in the export of textile and leather and the Biswa Bangla marketing is benefitting the buyers across the globe,” he said.

Prem Anup Sinha, Chief General Manager of State Bank of India urged the industrialists to go to the banks and keep in touch with them.

“We have 32 specialised branches to help the MSMEs. I urge the promoters of MSMEs to avail the development of technology for their growth,”he said.

Sajjan Patwari, chairman of Rashmi Group narrated how his company has grown over the years and how the company is maintaining the quality of steel.

“There is a in-house quality control laboratory and we supply steel to the government sector, Metro Railways and other organisations.”

Mr Biswanath Bhattacharya, president of FOSMI which functions as the bridge between the state government and the MSME units noted how over the years the MSMEs have become the backbone of industrial growth in Bengal. Mr Shekhar Chakraborty, chairman Conveyor and Ropeways Pvt Ltd, said nonlinear ropeways can be ecofriendly and can function as an MSME unit. Lovely Mukherjee, additional commissioner of state GST, also spoke at the meeting. Well-known journalist Pradip Gooptu moderated the proceedings.

Inaugurating the event, Ravindra Kumar Editor and Managing Director of The Statesman narrated how one of his friends named Deepak who had thought of using machinery to improve the function of carburettors in cars had faced trouble in setting up an unit. However, now the scenario has changed and carburettors have been replaced by the MPFI.

Vineet Gupta, one of the directors of The Statesman, was also present at the meeting. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Gupta hailed the contribution of MSMEs in nation-building. He also spoke about how the MSMEs have progressed in India over the years since independence.