What does it mean and how does it matter?
All governments indulge in talk talks and do little!
See the statistics!
Credit to the poor/farmers!
Institutions to cater to the poor people, small men and women and self-employed persons are very weak in India in spite of the talk talks on inclusive growth. Delhi is crowded by professional economists turned bureaucrats. They are in so many avatars. They talk too much and of course they talk meek and deferential to the authority.
They fear the authority and they are too weak-voiced when it comes to speaking the truth! That is why much of the economic policy making is so hypocritical!
See the status of the micro, small and medium sector enterprises. As per the latest data as per the quick results of the 4th Census of MSMEs, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises(by the way, pray, who is the minister for this portfolio, will he or she stand up please!) there 26,100 797 such units in the country. They make up 8 per cent of the country’s GDP. Much more important and interesting is the fact that they produce about 45 per cent of the manufacturing output!
And also they make up 40 per cent of the exports.
Why our high profile minister Mr.Anand Sharma hasn’t been heard to talk of this sector even for once, if we remember things correctly. If not why not he correct us, the poor soul in the remote corner of India crying hoarse, perhaps about the case for MSMEs?
Before we proceed further let us have the whole picture right and let us get it from the horse’s mouth.
Now, it is time to ask some hard questions.
The MSMEs suffer? Yes, of course they do!
What is the matter?
They don’t have access to credit.
The provide employment to some 60 million people. Big deal? Of course it is! Then, what is the rub?
90 per cent of the units are self-financed.
Why access to finance is so difficult? Ask our economic experts.
Not unrelated to the problem of lack of credit to MSMEs, there is the eternal bugbear, the farm credit.
The Karnataka announced farm loan at one per cent. As per the latest statistics, this announcement, this may not help all farmers, only those who are using the co-operative credit bank system.
So farmers, rather the farmer’s leaders who know the issues in some depth say revive the co-operative banks, at least one co-operative credit bank in each of the gram panchayats. In Karnataka, for instance, there are 5,628 gram panchayats and they must be served with co-operative credit in each panchayat. The district co-operative banks everywhere, except some few, are in distrust.
It is these banks and their revival to health, must be the focus of the Delhi-based busybodies like our top officials, experts all, who now talk and do things that don’t touch the lives of these small men and women.
Mohammad Yunus, who revolutionised the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh had been politically victimised and this is a sad day for Bangladesh and everywhere where we talk of micro credit and microfinance.
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