Chandigarh, December 9: Asserting that new MSME centres would go a long way in ascending the industrial scenario of Punjab, Industries Minister Sunder Sham Arora on Wednesday said that the new facilities would enhance the technology outreach across the state’s rural belt besides providing access to Advanced Manufacturing Technologies.
Disclosing further, the Minister said that GOI has decided to set up 20 new Technologies Centres (TCs) at a project cost of Rs. 200.00 crores each and 100 Extension Centres (ECs) at project cost of Rs. 20.00 crores each across the country in Hub & Spoke Model. The model is expected to be in self sustainable mode in two years of its operation.
The State of Punjab has 2 GOI institutes namely Central Tool Room (CTR), Ludhiana and Central Institute of Hand Tools (CIHT), Jalandhar who will act as Hub Centres for the ECs to be established in the State of Punjab, Arora said adding that Department of Industries & Commerce, Punjab has identified SAS Nagar, Patiala, Amritsar and Hoshiarpur and has recently signed MOUs with the Central Tool Room, Ludhiana and Central Instituted of Hand Tools, Jalandhar for setting up of the Extension Centres (Spoke Centres) wherein it has agreed to provide its vacant land and buildings on token lease basis for the purpose.
Besides these proposals, the department is also pursuing a proposal for setting up of an EC for Sport Goods Industry at Jalandhar, he added.
Reiterating the state government’s commitment to ensure viable infrastructure, Arora said the MSME sector provides huge employment opportunities at low investment. Using innovation and creativity, it is able to develop solutions at low cost and create new business models, thereby playing a vital role in economic development.
Therefore, the MSMEs are the backbone of economy and employment generation. However, they face huge challenges in terms of access to technology, skilled manpower and market.
Pertinently, the Ministry of MSME in GOI has already established 33 Technology Centres(TCs) in major industrial cities across the country.
For setting up of these TCs / ECs, it is envisaged that the GOI will provide all the machinery / equipment and the State Government will provide suitable land and building for the establishment of the Extension Centres.
The TCs will be situated in any of the major industrial towns of the State and equipped with state of the art machinery / equipment. These will be Centres of Excellence and will act as Hub Centres. To increase their outreach to MSMEs at grass root level, these Hub Centres will set up their ECs in potential districts of the State or catchment area. The TCs will be equipped with and act as a source of latest technology for its Spokes Centres. It will tie up with technical experts and procure licences for new technology, machinery to support its Spoke Centres in transferring technology to MSMEs.
The proposed ECs would have CAD, CAM, CAE, CNC machines, PLC, Embedded system, Industry 4.0, welding, grinding, heat treatment facilities. The facilities would provide the tooling and production services to MSMEs of the region thereby helping industries existing in these cities. It will also help entrepreneurs to start their own enterprise with the active technical and commercial linkages via its hub. The skill development activities would make the local population acquire knowledge and skill to serve the local industry and boost the local economy. The training courses on tool and die technology, CAD, CAM, CAE, PLC, Embedded system, welding, heat treatment would be offered. These courses are of the duration from 96 hours to one year with NSQF compliance, having international recognition of TCs. The plan is to make each of these centres, excelled in the field of Automation, Heat treatment, Welding and make a linkage to other centres of excellence so as to provide complete solutions to the existing and budding entrepreneurs.
