Bhubaneswar: The National Small Industries Corporation will shortly set up incubation centres for entrepreneurship development in the state.
"With necessary building infrastructure help from the state government, we can set up the centre shortly," said the corporation's chairman-cum-managing director Ravindra Nath.
"With the creation of National ST/SC Hub since 2016, various special incentives have been extended to the ST and SC entrepreneurs in procurement by the CPSUs," he said.
He said the industry body would bring plant and machinery required for the incubation support to the budding entrepreneurs under the ASPIRE scheme. He also invited a group of entrepreneurs from the state to visit their incubator and advance learning centre in New Delhi.
"In order to bridge the awareness gap about the scheme, the corporation has already organised 20 SC/ST conclaves in the current year, and the next one will be held in Odisha shortly," he said.
"There are as many as 38,477 MSMEs in the state, led by women. It constitutes 12.3 per cent of the total MSMEs in the state. The number of the women-led MSMEs in the state is higher than the national average," said the MSME department's additional chief secretary L.N. Gupta.
He was speaking during a seminar on the "Development of MSMEs with Focus on Women and ST/SC Entrepreneurs" held on the sidelines of the ongoing Odisha International MSME Trade Fair.
At least 9 per cent MSMEs are owned by persons from the SC category, while 6 per cent are by people from the ST category, he said.
Gupta said the Odisha MSME Policy, 2016, offered additional incentive of 5 per cent to the MSMEs promoted by women and ST and SC entrepreneurs.
Addressing the seminar, the industries' principal secretary Sanjeev Chopra called upon the MSMEs, including the women entrepreneurs, to use online platforms such as GO SWIFT, Go Smile and APPA. The Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation has more than 50,000 acres in its land bank for the entrepreneurs intending to set up industry in the state, he said.
