New Delhi, May 9 (KNN) FISME, the national federation of MSMEs of India, has recently submitted an elaborate note to the Ministry of MSME on constitution and operation of National SC/ST Hub.

Finance Minister Arun Jiatley, in his Budget Speech, announced about the intention of the Government towards formation of the Hub for capacity building of SC and ST youth in entrepreneurship as well as participation in Government procurements.

As announced, the Hub is to leverage on the reservation for SC /ST entrepreneurs in Public Procurement Order as well as Prime Minister’s ‘Stand Up India’ programme, to enable SC ST youth as successful entrepreneurs.

It has been learnt from reliable sources that FISME in its note to the Ministry of MSME has stressed on creating equality in the society by ensuring   equal opportunity for everybody to create wealth.

It has also highlighted that at present, while majority of the workers and job workers in traditional clusters belong to SC/ST and marginalized sections, there are very few SC / ST entrepreneurs who operate independently and those who do, mostly operate at sub-sub optimal micro level.

It has been learnt that some days back, K K Jalan, Secretary, Ministry of MSME, called a meeting of all concerned to brainstorm on the structure and deliverables of the National SC/ ST hub to be set up in Ministry of MSME.

In its note, FISME has stressed that the National SC/ST Hub need to be modelled on a mission mode rather than another ‘Scheme’ funded activity and need to partner with associations that are better managed and are willing to play an active role in mentoring, supporting and integrating SC/ST entrepreneurs.

Core areas of activities suggested by FISME for the SC/ST hub are,  capturing  granular data/ information on SC/ST entrepreneurs, capacity building of SC/ST entrepreneurs directly or through a range of existing institutions and  coordination with Ministries, public and private institutions including associations which are already engaged in  development/ training and similar support activities.

Commenting on the structure of the proposed hub, a crucial issue that will justify its effectiveness, FISME has provide three options to the Ministry.

While the  first model conceptualised as a  'Leading’ hub with a statutory structure, the  second concept is of a ‘Supporting’ hub - which focuses on implementation of schemes focused to the SC /ST entrepreneurs. The third suggested model was of PSU type ‘Acting’ hub with fairly hands-on option from planning to implementation.

Towards mobilization of resource for the Hub, FISME has suggested to converge all available resources of state and central Government and knowledge institutions but stresses on provision of additional resources for handholding and knowledge dissemination on a robust ICT platform. (KNN/ DB)