Elets Technimedia organised a three-day India Transformation Summit from July 10 to July 12. Shine P Sasidhar, Infrastructure Expert and Strategist addressed the session on ‘Using Digital Infrastructure and Technology for Better Governance’.
Mr Sasidhar commenced his address by saying, “The Trade Receivable and E-Discounting (TRED) System is an amazing example of digital infrastructure and how it will be improving the governance. TREDS is majorly for the benefit of the MSMEs.”
Adding on to the MSMEs he said, “The major problem that MSMEs are facing today is of liquidity. While using this digital platform like TRED we could increase the liquidity and TRED is a solution for it.” Further, to help MSME, it must be ensured that the seller is an MSME and all the companies earning above Rs 500 crore turnover and also the Centre PSUs should mandatorily come into this system, told Mr Sasidhar.
Further speaking on the liquidity part, Mr Sasidhar said, “There are three platforms which RBI has approved for selling and buying on the digital domain… Once the buyer has approved the receipt of transaction, then the intermediaries will provide bidding to the buyer. So the buyer will get the best financial option. Hence, the buyer will get some benefits like they may get some extended credit days or other such benefits and the seller will get the immediate payment. This way, the liquidity will be improved in the system.” However, the major buyer from the MSME, whether service industry or product-based, the government is a significant stakeholder. And, the government is not registered in the system neither it is a mandate for the government to register, he added.
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Elaborating on the government’s role, he said, “When we look at the Centre, for any of the procurements, there will be not much delay in the payments. However, in case of many of the state governments, the payment gets delayed for sometimes over a year.” So, until the state government companies come on to the portal, the system will not be complete. Hence, all the stakeholders must come on this single trading system and that can lead to achieving benefits to economy and industries, he added.
Talking on ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’, Mr Sasidhar said, “The Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan is also laying emphasis on empowering MSMEs to augment the entire economic growth.”
Further, he spoke about Government e-Marketplace (GeM), “On GeM, around 51 percent of the sale is of the MSMEs. Hence, it is one of the leading examples of e-governance through digital infrastructure platforms.”
On his closing remarks on the way forward, Mr Sasidhar said, “The digital infrastructure is having a big scope in the infra sphere. Today we maybe using it for a specific domain like for MSMEs or for some large corporate. But, we need to bring this for the entire system and not only to a specific area of work… Today the definition of MSMEs have changed and it is now the companies having a turnover of up to Rs 200 crore. However, there are numerous companies in the bracket of Rs 200 crore to Rs 500 crore and there is a need for these companies to also be incorporated on the trading platforms and such systems. This will be helpful for the liquidity and to achieve the dream of self-reliant India.”