Surendra Nath Tripathi,
Joint Secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium
Enterprises, Government of India
Surendra Nath Tripathi, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises, Government of India, talks about the role of cloud in better governance
Maharashtra’s cloud experience is impressive. Its model should be replicated elsewhere, as Greater Noida, in UP, is doing it by accomplishing the change of ownership of a plot in half-an-hour after a buyer uploads all the documents.
The Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) represent eight percent of the total GDP and about 45 percent of the total exports of the country. But, sadly though, in a study conducted across 22 cities, it was found that in only four cities, just two percent of the MSMEs were aware of e-governance. This is the area where IT-enabled manufacturing, supply and management can be a game changer.
If there is an IT application based on iCloud, costing a dollar a month, an enterprise can easily prepare its account. The Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises gave this thought a shot, worked this plan out and placed a virtual cluster platform.
For one MSME unit with three users, the application was available for US$10 a month. The government is negotiating that it comes down to a dollar, because if it is economical, millions of units will start using it. A virtual cluster platform is being created for interacting with the MSMEs, who are widespread. The ministry applied it in the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), where only online application forms were to be accepted for credit-cum-enterprise setting initiative.
Surprisingly, the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises got more than six lakh applications from 600 districts of the country. However, only 85,000 cases were to be considered. Therefore, the applications were transferred to the district level task force, chaired by respective collectors. After their recommendation, it went to the bank then branch, and finally, to the persons concerned. Right now, the idea of putting up application forms for bank loans, etc., on the MSME ministry’s website for the convenience of all the 36 million enterprises in case of different needs is under the government officials’ consideration. At MSME credit seminars, enterprises say they do not get loans, bankers say we didn’t get good cases and the finance ministry says they did not get any complaint. To avert this situation, the MSME ministry is working in line with the above idea.
“A recent study across 22 cities suggested that just two percent of the MSMEs in only four cities are aware of e-governance“
Cloud computing has come to a level today, where there is a win-win situation for both buyer and seller. It provides speed to enterprises by providing services at good pace and negligible cost. But many of our government cloud services lag way behind. The time has come to reboot the system at the government level.
Click here to Watch Surendra Nath Tripathi Speaking Live
Be a part of Elets Collaborative Initiatives. Join Us for Upcoming Events and explore business opportunities. Like us on Facebook , connect with us on LinkedIn and follow us on Twitter, Instagram.
