New Delhi, Jun 27 (KNN) In order to improve competitiveness of micro, small and medium industries in the manufacturing sector, the World Bank has joined hands with the Ministry of MSME to make quality tools and testing facilities available to them at reasonable costs by setting up Tool Rooms in the public sector.

“The main objective of the project is to make available quality tools to this sector at reasonable cost, testing facilities and to conduct training programs to meet the shortage of trained manpower,” said the Director Tool Room, R K Rai in a notification.

The proposed project will increase the competitiveness of MSMEs, improve the skill set of the labour force to meet demand in key high value engineering sectors including ESDM (electronic systems design and manufacturing), plastics, automotive and aerospace industries, and address a growing gap in service delivery. 

At the institutional level, the network of Hi-tech Tool Rooms and existing training capacity is insufficient to meet the growing demand in high value engineering design, and needs a dedicated and focused effort in order to address declining competitiveness, the notification further added.

The manufacturing sector has been facing tough competition in the national and international market as most of the MSMEs cannot afford to have their captive Tool Rooms.
Considering that useful service is rendered by these Tool Rooms, it is imperative that more such centres should be established in the country.

The estimated cost of each Tool Room (including the cost of land, building, plant and machinery, other infrastructure and pre-operative cost) is nearly Rs 125-130 crore i.e. about USD 25 million.  Thus an outlay of USD 200 million of external finance may be required for setting up 15 Tool Rooms,  during XII Plan (2012-2017), in addition to funds already being provided by the central ministry and state government.

With a view to foster the growth of the MSME Sector in the country, Government of India has set up 10 state-of-the-art tool rooms. These centres provide invaluable service to the industry by way of providing necessary technological push.

These tool rooms are highly proficient in tool and dye making technology and promote precision and quality in the development and manufacture of sophisticated moulds, dyes, tools and equipment.

They concentrate on an integrated development of related segments of industries by way of providing international quality products, trained personnel and consultancy in product and process development including turnkey projects.
 
According to the fourth All India  Census of MSMEs, the number of enterprises and employment opportunities in this sector has grown by more than 25 per cent in the period 2006 -07 to 2011-12 compared to the period 2001-02 to 2006-07.
 
At present, DC MSME operates 10 tool rooms (TRs) and eight technology development centres (TDCs).
 
Several of these have been set up through collaborations with German and Danish agencies as well as with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).  These Technology Centres to a large extent are self-sustaining centres that have been providing technical and vocational training programs to more than 1,00,000 trainees annually.  
 
Meanwhile, an Identification Mission has been carried out by the World Bank according to which the hired consultancy will have to work.  The key findings of the study have to be implemented which includes providing technical assistance to improve coordination between research and industry (public and private, domestic and international).  
 
The project also envisages scaling up of training activities of MSME Tool Rooms (as per the recommendations of the evaluation reports), possibly through a change in their organizational set-up to reflect this new core business, developing, with the support of other World Bank projects, linkages with ITIs and Polytechnics.  (SD/KNN)