Government Goes for Promotion of Zero Defect Zero Effect in MSMEs

New Delhi, July 16 (KNN) The Office of Development Commissioner, MSME has finally announced the guidelines for implementation  of the "Financial Support to MSMEs in ZED Certification Scheme" with a total budget of Rs 491.00 crores during the 12^th Five Year Plan.

The scheme is an extensive drive to create proper awareness in MSMEs about Zero Effect Zero Defect (ZED) manufacturing and motivate them for assessment of their enterprise for ZED and support them, the Government notification announces.

It may me mentioned that the mission of Zero Defect, Zero Effect was launched by the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech, on 15 the August, 2014.

His objective was to enhance manufacturing in India under ‘Make in India’ while taking care of quality and environmental effects.

Almost all industrial nations, the most recent example is China, faced severe problem of quality issues and environmental pollution during the initial period of stepping up of manufacturing sector.

The purpose of the Zero Defect Zero Defect mission of the Prime Minister is to pre-empt such happenings.

According to the Government, MSMEs will be certified under various categories; bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond etc. under the scheme, after assessment under 50 parameters by Government certified assessors.

Under the scheme there is a special ZED defence category under which readiness of the MSMEs for defence supplies will be certified separately.

The unique feature of the scheme is that an enterprise is given the scope to move up the so called ‘ZED maturity model’ or from bronze to silver etc. etc.

For the handholding in ‘maturity’ upgradation under the ZED scheme there is provision of Services of Consultants who will support the MSMEs in upgrading manufacturing, quality, environmental management etc.

While the  programme is an welcome step for assessment and upgradation of manufacturing capabilities of MSMEs, the linking of credit rating agencies with the programme, may be the apple of discord.

Commenting on the scheme, an expert of  FISME, the leading federation of Indian MSMEs, mentioned  that Credit Rating Agencies  has no competency in assessment of technical performances, even for credit rating their competencies are highly doubtful.

Already quite a few MSME bodies have approached the Government to remove the compulsory credit rating of MSMEs for availing Bank loan,  by theses rating agencies. Under this circumstance the rationality of empowering the rating agencies to certify technical competencies of MSMEs is not clear, the expert said.

Another expert on quality opined that ideally, the quality system certification bodies should given the responsibility of assessing the ZED maturity of MSMEs. They are already  assessing the quality systems of MSMEs  under various ISO standards.

For the defence focused MSMEs, Government should also allow certification by foreign certification bodies, which may be required by the Tier I supplier.