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Nagaland is recently noticing unequivocal statements from both the elected representatives and bureaucrats that the youth has to take up entrepreneurship and opt for private employment. It is indeed a very welcome step of shifting the focus though we are still a few years behind other states. Coincidently there also was news about the alleged lack of transparency in implementing PMEGP under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Nagaland.
In retrospection, a few elections back when MSMED Act was recently launched, this topic was hotly debated by politicians in Nagaland and everyone accepted that the employment problem was the fault of the government of the day. Whereas the country had seen considerable changes in growth of industry after the Government of India enacted the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (MSMED) Act, 2006. One major paradigm shift of the Act was the inclusion of the service sector which is a major contributor to the country’s GDP. The act further demystified and made easier many of the earlier licensing norms and regulations that were required for opening up units. Instead of filing for licenses an entrepreneur was now made to file memorandum in the District Industry Centres, a measure to also curb red-tapism. Another major shift was also the usage of the term ‘entrepreneur’ and’ enterprise’ instead of the then commonly used term ‘industry’ and its related words. In its tenth year the MSMED Act has greatly helped in facilitating new start-ups in all the sectors and there are many success stories across India.
In Nagaland there are been some entrepreneurs whose success can be attributed partly to the schemes under the Ministry of MSME with its more entrepreneur friendly procedures and channelling various financial institutes for prospective entrepreneurs. However the overall picture is still not a very pretty sight. There are still omissions of crucial information by many of the nodal agencies that go unnoticed by the prospective entrepreneurs. More aggressive awareness programmes with minor tweaking in consonance with the local situation are required.
The use of these agencies as political tools in Nagaland has to be completely stopped. The practice of making political appointments to head these agencies by persons who have no prior experience or idea of MSMEs has to be stopped. Unless this is corrected the citizens will always be cynical to the programmes being launched by the government. “I have no connection so why waste time trying” is one too common statement that is heard in Nagaland. Moreover the banks have already become wary of these schemes because when the benefits go to the wrong “entrepreneurs” there won’t any enterprise and so recovery of loan is a far cry.
In other states, there are already suggestions about amending the MSMED Act for further revisions in the investment limits due to inflation and changing market situation; here in Nagaland the citizens are yet to join the MSME bandwagon in the true sense. Unless preventive measures are taken immediately to correct the current practices, sheer rhetoric will not solve the problem. It is the duty of the government of the day with its array of legislation and rules on its side to make entrepreneurship and private employment just as attractive as any other career.