ForumIAS announcing GS Foundation Program for UPSC CSE 2025-26 from 19 April. Click Here for more information.
ForumIAS Answer Writing Focus Group (AWFG) for Mains 2024 commencing from 24th June 2024. The Entrance Test for the program will be held on 28th April 2024 at 9 AM. To know more about the program visit: https://forumias.com/blog/awfg2024
Contents
What is the News?
The Central Government is working towards building a robust data bank for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises(MSMEs) by integrating information across various ministries and government data.
What is the Government trying to do for MSMEs?
- The Ministry of MSME is in talks with government departments so that more businesses are registered as MSME.
- For this, it has requested ministries to accept Udyam registration as the formal identity for their schemes.
- This will allow Udyam registration number to act as a common business number. This number can be used across ministries.
- For instance, there are schemes that aim to support enterprises in rural areas that fall under the ambit of the ministry of rural development.
- Linking an enterprise’s Udyam registration number can help the government analyse the kind of business and its need.
- As of now, the ministries of rural development and tourism have accepted the Ministry of MSME proposal.
What was the need for this step?
- MSMEs are considered to be the backbone of the economy, accounting for 30% of the country’s gross domestic product(GDP).
- However, the lack of adequate statistics on MSMEs has been one of the key challenges for the government.
- Experts believe it is important to identify who the real MSMEs are, as there is no reliable data available for small businesses.
- Hence, integrating data with other ministries will help the government frame stronger schemes to come up with a better methodology. They will be able to reach out and support businesses and bring more MSMEs under the formal sector.
Udyam Portal:
- Udyam registration portal was launched in 2020. It is an online self-declaration process for MSMEs.
- It simplifies the process of registering for any enterprise under the MSME category for them to avail benefits under various government schemes.
- Also, it is already integrated with the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Goods and Services Tax Network(GSTN) as well as the government e-marketplace(GeM).
- As of July 2021, over 3.8 million MSMEs have registered on the Udyam portal.
