Lucknow, Feb 16 (KNN) Ahead of the upcoming CM Yogi Aditynath’s mega event- UP Investors Summit, the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) units of the state are eyeing at big announcement from the Uttar Pradesh government.

Sharing the wishlist, traders and entrepreneurs from different sectors have expressed their expectations. 

Chikan Industry

Talking to KNN, Ajay Khanna, Khanna Chikan Emporium, Lucknow said that the sector in the recent times have been experiencing some ups and downs due to the roll out of the Goods and Services Tax.

“The chikankari comes under handmade sector that used to be exempt from taxation under the previous tax regime, but with the coming of GST there have been an impact, the industry is expecting some relief from the government in this regard”, he said.

Khanna further said that the UP Investors summit is being organized with a promise to bring in investment, if done so, the Chikan industry that is famous all over the country will get impetus to expand its significance abroad as well with fresh investments flowing in.

Food processing MSMEs

Talking to KNN, Arvinder Singh Kohli of Japji Foods, located in Chinhat industrial area od Lucknow expressed that the state lacks in terms of a proper infrastructure.

“Infrastructure becomes all the more important when it comes to food processing sector since it produced perishable items”, he informed.

Commenting further, Singh said that the MSMEs are also eyeing at the government to announce revised framework to obtain licences and clearance in a bid to fulfil their promise of promoting ease of doing business in the state.

“We have urged the government to appoint nodal officers for different sectors to look after the nuances of licensing”, he added.

The main focus of the entrepreneur should be to improve business standards whereas the present situation forces him to focus on obtaining clearances and waste time from office to office, he lamented.

Handicraft Sector

Ravinder Miglani, a Saharanpur based wooden handicraft exporter explained that in the recent times the ecosystem is not very friendly when it comes to export of handicrafts. He further informed that the famous wooden handicrafts from Saharanpur are not performing the way it should.

Listing possible initiatives that the government may introduce, Ravinder said that the state must come up with lucrative schemes to enhance exports, especially for the handicraft sector.

The upcoming UP Investors Summit is to be inaugurated at 1100 hours on February 21 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi while during the valedictory session President Ramnath Kovind would be the chief guest and Union Finance minister Arun Jaitley will be the chief speaker.

The 11 key areas are being identified for investments namely civil aviation, IT-enabled services, dairy, electronics manufacturing, tourism, MSME, infrastructure, renewable energy, films, handloom/textile, and agro/food processing. (KNN/DA)