N. Vijaya Kumari
Marketing, a strategic tool for business development, is critical for the growth and survival of micro, small & medium enterprises. Marketing is the most important factor for the success of any enterprise. Large enterprises have enough resources at their command to hire manpower to take care of marketing of their products and services. MSME sector does not have these resources at their command and thus needs institutional support for providing these inputs in the area of marketing. Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises, inter-alia, through National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), a Public Sector Enterprise of the Ministry, has been providing marketing support to Micro & Small Enterprises (MSEs) under Marketing Assistance Scheme. Emergence of a large and diverse services sector in the past years had created a situation in which it was no longer enough to address the concerns of the Micro & Small Enterprises (MSE) erstwhile known as Small Scale Industries (SSI) alone but essential to include the entire gamut of enterprises, covering both SSI Sector and related service entities, in a seamless web. There was a need to provide space for the small enterprises to grow into medium scale enterprises, for that is how they will be able to adopt better and higher levels of technology and remain competitive in a fast globalizing world. Thus, as in most developed and developing countries, it was necessary that in India too, the concerns of the entire range of enterprises – micro, small and medium, were addressed and the sector was provided with a single legal framework. The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (MSMED) Act, 2006 addresses these issues and also other issues relating to credit, marketing, technology upgradation etc concerning the micro, small and medium enterprises. The enactment of MSMED Act 2006, w.e.f. from 2nd October, 2006 has brought medium scale industries and service related enterprises also under the purview of this Ministry.
Marketing Assistance Scheme, MSME