New Delhi, Sept 7 (KNN) Innovation and collaboration are the key factors for the growth of the MSME sector, said Dr Arun Kumar Panda, Secretary, Ministry of MSME.

He was speaking at the 8^th National MSME Convention on “Innovative Solutions to Disruption for MSMEs” organized by the All India Management Association (AIMA).

Disruptive technological elements impact MSMEs too, he added.

In the new disruptive global order, he said MSMEs stand to face new challenges and have to explore opportunities.

Inaugurating the MSME Convention Panda said that in India MSMEs have faced events like demonetization, implementation of GST, effectively and have resiliently grown to become a strong sector in the economy.

Panda pointed that according to national sample survey conducted in 2015-16, there are more than 63.3 million MSMEs in the non-farming sector in our country, and due to robust growth in the sector their number has increased to 80 million today.

The government is committed to helping this sector as is evident by schemes like MUDRA, which grant loans to youth to start their own enterprises, he added.

He further said that, timely availability of low cost credit and access to markets are the challenges most MSMEs face.

To overcome these challenges, Panda said that the government has set up a corpus fund of Rs 2,500 crore to provide credit guarantee to MSMEs.

Another Rs 800 crore has been given to this fund, through budgetary infusion, he said.

“From this month onward NBFCs (Non-Banking Financial Institutions) will also provide credit to MSMEs,” Panda added.

He said “While 75 per cent of the credit will be guaranteed by the government, from the previous 50 per cent, a further 15 per cent will be provided as credit if partial collaterals are pledged.”

In his welcome address, CME-AIMA, Director, Dr Raj Agarwal, said that innovative solutions are needed for MSMEs to effectively face disruptions.

AIMA MSME Committee, Chairman, Dr Juneja said that MSMEs have become the backbone of the manufacturing sector but they need to be innovative and improve quality and standard to face global competition.