New Delhi, Jan 14 (KNN) The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) units should improve energy efficiency and go in for renewable energy. They should leverage on the Common Facility Centre scheme of the Government, said Sudhir Garg, Joint Secretary of Ministry of MSME.

He said this during the 15^th meeting of “Small and Medium Enterprises: Energy Efficiency Knowledge Sharing Platform (Sameeksha)”, held in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

Garg added that the units face lots of challenges in the international and domestic markets. Technological developments such as virtual reality and augmented reality are penetrating into the manufacturing sector.

MSMEs need to be competitive in such a scenario. They need to device new methods to bring down costs and energy is a significant factor to improve margins, he said.

Garg also said that the clear goal of the Ministry was to improve competitiveness of the MSMEs.

Representatives of industrial associations present at the meeting, interacted with senior officials from the Ministries of Power and MSME and highlighted the challenges they faced, mainly in improving energy efficiency.

Speaking about the use of energy efficiency, Economic Advisor of Ministry of Power, Raj Pal said that when the MSME units are energy efficient, they not only save on costs but also contribute to greener environment.

The Ministry of Power has schemes for the MSMEs. If MSME units or associations have research and development topics, the Ministry can fund it through its schemes, he added.