CII to facilitate Punjab, Haryana in formulating MSME, startup policy

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 28

The CII will coordinate with the Punjab and Haryana governments in formulating their respective MSME policies. It will also work for forming dedicated and focused startup policies, said Rumjhum Chatterjee, chairperson, CII-Northern region.

Talking to The Tribune, she said, “Northern region has a huge SMEs base — 74% member companies of CII in the Northern region are SMEs. Building SMEs’ competitiveness is the key to build Northern region’s competitiveness. Our agenda for 2016-17 is to encourage the states to have separate and dedicated policy for MSMEs to give fillip to this sector.”

Taking a step in this direction, CII this year will launch a unique cluster development project called Sectoral Leadership Programme. It has identified three clusters to begin with. These include auto cluster in Faridabad (Haryana), bicycle parts cluster in Ludhiana (Punjab) and pharma cluster in Baddi (Himachal Pradesh). 

On startup initiative, she said, “We have also asked our members to dedicate 2% of the budget earmarked for CSR activities towards startups. Under this initiative, the members will pick up the projects, train the budding entrepreneurs and ensure some venture crop up. Also, we have tied up with an institution for fostering budding entrepreneurs.”