The first National Conference on Small Scale Industries held on August 30 in New Delhi and inaugurated by the Hon'ble Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, was indeed a landmark event in the history of the small scale sector. The major package announced for small scale units adds a finishing touch.

The package is in the guise of large incentives to strengthen the small scale sector which includes raising the excise duty exemption limit from Rs. 50 lakh to Rs. 1 crore and a credit guarantee scheme for the small scale industries. The union government is setting aside a modest sum of Rs. 125 crore for this purpose.Further in the incentives to SSIs, the union government has decided to raise the limit for composite loans from Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 25 lakh so that the entrepreneurs would now be able to secure term loans and working capital from the same agency.

More than the concessions or incentives, the small scale entrepreneurs will be benefited much from any move that will reduce paper work and phase out the pain of inspections by various government inspectorates. The Minister of State for Small Scale Industries Mrs. Vasundhara Raje disparaged the fact that a small-scale unit is subjected to a minimum of 37 inspections, 52 laws and 116 forms and registers. The minister appealed for a single legislation for the small-scale sector, which would cut down procedural hassles to the barest minimum and do away with inspectorism/inspectionraj.Small-scale sector has proved its vibrancy once again by registering a higher growth rate than that of overall industrial sector.

Focussing on the need for technology upgradation in SSIs to survive in the age of globalisation, the G.O.I. also announces a capital subsidy of 12% for investment in technology in selected areas. Further to encourage TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT in SSIs, the Prime Minister said that he would continue the quality incentive for the next six years : granting of Rs. 75,000 to each unit which obtains ISO 9000 Certification.These are all initiatives which will have for reaching effect on the performance of the SSI sector and the economy in general. But one nagging problem remains : credit. It is estimated that the credit need of SSIs all over India is a colossal Rs. 1,00,000 crore but the banks are presently extending only Rs. 45,000 crore - which means less than half of the requirement. Even with this level of credit exposure, their Non Performing Assets (NPA) are about 20 per cent, which is highly disconcerting.

It implies two things. Steps have to be taken to enhance credit availabilities to the SSI sector to make it more dynamic, but more importantly, the incidence of incipient sickness must be controlled to avoid accrual of Non Performing Assets.The Government has done its bit by putting the best foot forward and it is left to the industry to rise up to the occasion to safeguard precious resources from getting frittered away with the proliferation of NPAs. After all, a rupee saved is a rupee earned and it should become a mantra for everyone to show utter vigilance to prevent the industry from falling into the trap of sickness. This is the only way in which the intended policies can continue to contribute to galvanising national development.

nisiet, right from inception, has also been in the forefront in addressing issues related to village industries. The initial rural industrialisation programme, steered by SIDO, was provided extensive conceptuals support by nisiet. The first few decades naturally saw major concentration on expansion of the sector and enhancement of productivity. The concerted campaign was responsible for commendable progress achieved during the post-Independence decades in the sector.Now appears to be the time for equally concerted endeavours to address related aspects impacted by village industries and other enterprises at similar levels of technology and investment, in enterprises of this kind.

The current aspect of quality of life engaging serious attention of development thinkers and professionals in India and other developing countries is the question of child labour. This is important because of not only the governments' commitment to a time frame, for engineering a quantum jump in quality of life of the rural poor, but also because of current trends in the world trade regimes, with opinion building up fast against products and services with child labour content in them.In recognition of endeavours the world over for amelioration of working conditions for the rural poor especially for women and children, nisiet has taken a conscious decision to espouse the cause of eradication of child labour. Such espousal is translated into action programme through an ILO assignment for a countrywide operation to address the difficult problem of child labour. nisiet began its efforts to deal with child labour problems in the Markapur area of AP, which has concentration of state industry. This is just for the starters. nisiet is on the verge of signing a contract with ILO covering a much larger project to handle activities connected with eradication of child labour.

The strategy under contemplation relates to assistance for families economically affected by rehabilitation of child labour, with financial resources for launching micro enterprises, the area of core competence of nisiet. This has the spin-off effect of empowerment of women in the process because the entire programme is oriented towards assistance to mothers of rehabilitated child workers. The programme envisages to cover six identified district sin which the problem of child labour is widely prevalent. nisiet hopes to gain new and meaningful insights into processes of industrialisation in developing economies. The possibilities are for evolution of new paradigms of correlation between development of micro enterprises especially in clusters and enhancements in quality of life of the rural poor. This is in an endeavour to blend economic empowerment of the rural poor with their quality of life.

Customer focus is the buzzword of the day. From the product focussed markets a decade ago where the buyer had hardly any choice but to take what was given, we have moved to a situation where the customer dictates the terms. This radical shift of focus is the logical culmination of several forces acting in unison: more and more nations opting for open economies and public sovereignty; increasing proclivity towards globalisation in world countries; growing preference for open markets; the spreading influence of WTO and the access to a wide and diverse range of product choices as also the acute competition ensuing from it.

Focusing the customer mainly calls for quality - quality not only of product, but of price, of supply and delivery as well. Quality of delivery means, first and last, maintaining rigorous schedules along the supply chain at every point, and calls for a well-laid integrated system of logistics and materials management - a tricky and ticklish area for most of the SMEs.nisiet, whose main concern is SME sector, constituted a separate centre - Centre for Logistics and Integrated Materials Systems (C-LAIMS) - with the main objective of providing customised assistance to the needy SME units through training and consulting interventions.

The centre's services are available in the form of in-plant studies, and consulting and training in developing integrated supply chain concept for achieving improved profits through enhanced customer satisfaction.Further the centre envisages to groom Indian SMEs to produce and supply goods and services of a quality second to none in the world, delivered dot on the schedule - and at internationally competitive prices too. In the priority items on its agenda, the centre includes promotion of strategic alliances and partnership between the Indian SMEs and corporates so that both can meet the challenges of the new millennium and the dictates of customer satisfaction with reinforced confidence.Among the many components that contribute to a prim supply chain and a satisfied customer base, the centre perceives waste minimisation as a factor of commensurate importance.

The centre therefore has on its programme list the education of SMEs in minimising all types of waste so that they are geared to negotiating the demands of changing business environment with better competence and ability.With the kind of hands-on experience, conceptual understanding, practical insights and guidance strategies the centre has on its clip-board, C-LAIMS has established itself as the ideal vehicle to escort the SMEs to enter the arena of global competition with a sure step. Its services will take the SMEs a long way in developing and upgrading the vendor base of their organisations. All it needs is making a claim on the expertise and knowledge of C-LAIMS.

The world is undergoing a severe environmental crisis and therefore our continuing survival depends on developing solutions to these problems, especially in ensuring that the present needs are met without foreclosing our future options. Since all economic activities either affect or are affected by industrial and environmental resources, economic development without environment concern can cause serious environmental damage, in turn impairing the quality of life of present and future generations.

The importance of the small-scale sector in India can hardly be underestimated, given the fact that it occupies a position of prominence in the Indian economy and contributes to over 50 per cent of the industrial production in terms of value-addition and accounts for 7% of the GDP. Despite all achievements, the sector faces several disadvantages: low capital investment, untrained man-power, use of obsolete technologies, inadequate environment conservation systems, etc. For the small scale sector the dialectics of development and environment preservation is a formidable task, which calls for integration of environment aspects with development aspirations.

nisiet which always tried to offer solutions to different issues of SME sector responded to this predicament in the form of creating the C-ECo (The Centre for Environment Concerns) at nisiet with a mission to promote clean and safe environment through propagation of better practices among SMEs in India, and to propagate concepts like energy conservation and better operating practices.Switching over to clean technologies, waste minimisation, efficient disposal of hazardous wastes, recycling and reuse of wastes gainfully for harmless ends are some of the measures which can help the Indian small scale sector to overcome to some extent this ills facing the sector. The C-ECo would endeavour to provide necessary services to the sector in this regard.C-ECo will work towards providing guidance, counselling and essential training to percolate a green culture into the SME sector. The C-ECo also conducts awareness programmes to create and evolve a concern for the environment, which, it hopes, would lead to a conscious effort by industries to minimize environmental pollution and also to develop an eco-friendly approach in the manufacturing process.Wish you all a clean, green and prosperous new year.

The change and the speed mania that has gripped the world has unleashed cataclysmic changes in every sphere of life. Organisations with a defined role try to discover the avenues to keep them going and growing without snapping the primordial role bestowed on them. It is difficult to see tomorrow's picture in the tumult of changes as what is conceived today is outdated tomorrow. When your abilities to be on the edge and succeed are limited, your strategies and skills take on a critical import.The situation becomes even more complex when you have to contend with these challenges on a global plane. The crisis facing the organisations today is our inability to see beyond and adjust our systems-gear suitably.

The centre of concern is how to mould organisations that can fulfill today's needs in anticipation of uncontrollable demands of tomorrow. A Mars mission is not conceived and accomplished the same day. When your mental faculties are obsessed with today, your tomorrow is blurred. Organisations fail to dream and therefore to deliver. How to build alacrity in organisations is a major leadership challenge. Such leadership cannot be oblivious to the reality that Knowledge is the new source of competitive advantage.We are trying to build knowledge organisations today. An organisation is not qualified as knowledge one merely by its e-enablement but by its innate ability to learn and discover itself. Companies need radically new knowledge to succeed in an environment in which whole industries are created and destroyed or unalterably transformed by relentless technology, competitive shifts and changing demographics.

The one-day seminar on Management Practices in Knowledge Based Enterprises, organised on 14th December, by our C-PAMP was spurred by this need. The event had attracted participation from widely divergent range of organisations like hospitals, educational institutions, software industries and IT services, and ranged from CEOs down to students. The outcome has been quite satisfying.It was unanimously agreed that knowledge is the asset that gives the power to last and lead in today's fast and competitive global environment. Knowledge should not be perceived as a necessary quirk to refine and improve the product and/or process, but should be recognized as that essentiality which should pervade the entire organisational phenomenon.Such a process has to be in tune with the environment to the extent that it can hold itself erect in the face of complexities and be a leader. It should be constantly on the path of innovation and be a trailblazer. That is how by being ahead of time we beam into future and create a winning organisation.Wish you all a happy & prosperous new year.