Prabhu holds meeting with departments-MSME Ministry to discuss plan for increasing growth rate of districts

New Delhi, Apr 11 (KNN) Eyeing at facilitating growth in the country by advancing with a ‘district centred approach’ , Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu held a meeting with officials from various departments including the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Ministry.

The focus of the meeting was to prepare and action plan to increase growth rate at district level by 3-4 per cent per annum by accelerating economic activities.

The action plan is to be devised along the larger aim of making India a USD 5 trillion economy, an official release from the government informed.

During the meeting, Commerce Minister Prabhu said that to push growth further, a bottom-up approach is required.

Districts need to be considered as planning and execution units, facilitating change at micro level.

Informing of the roadmap ahead, the minister informed that in order to achieve this aim, few districts including Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Varanasi and Vishakhapatnam, across different states will be selected in phase 1 of the pilot project. Profile of the districts will be created, identifying strengths and local resources, so as to incorporate it with different sectors and verticals.

Efforts will be made to converge government and private initiatives and introduce mechanism for handholding and mentoring. The Minister directed the officials to create an Action Plan in this regard at the earliest.

Along with MSME Secretary Arun Kumar Panda, representative from different Ministries including Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and Statistics & Program Implementation along with NITI Aayog, Department of Economic Affairs and representatives of States of Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh were present at the meeting. (With PIB Inputs) (KNN/DA)