WRITE-UP

RTI DRAFTING COMPETITION 2021

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By Joseph Abishek & Swarna Naatchu

INTRODUCTION
“We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we sISe
cannot help but change”

Right to Information is undoubtedly vital to the democracy for ensuring

transparency and accountability in governance. The power of getting accountability,
reducing corruption, impacting policy decisions and ensuring better governance is now
with us. Till 2005 Indians had no access to any information effecting public interest. The
Indian judiciary played a vital role in changing this situation. The Supreme Court in the
case Gupta v. Union of India1 endorsed the view that under a democratic set up, the
people have the right to know about the functioning of the government. Then many other
forthcoming judicial pronouncements lead to the formation of Right to Information Act,
2006. Now it is path breaking in controlling corruption and providing information to the
public without any discrimination. So as proud Indians we have used this privilege to
provide relevant information to the public for the benefit of this nation.

1
(1993) 4 SCC 441
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NEED OF THE HOUR & WHY THIS

We are all well aware of the fact that India is the second highest populated
country in the whole world but many of us don't know that India has the highest youth
population in the world. “The youth of a nation are the trustees of posterity” is an
understatement as the youth of a country have an indispensable role in building the future
of a nation. We must understand that employment and development are two sides of the
same coin. But, India is still not out of the woods as far as unemployment is concerned
after a year when the lockdown was imposed to contain the spread of deadly COVID-19
on March 25 last year as pandemic-induced job loss has not diminished off consistently.

"The employment rate has fallen from 40

per cent in February to 26 per cent now.
This is steep fall of 14 percentage points.
The 30-day moving average employment
rate as on May 23 has fallen by 100 basis
points, marking a loss of 10 million jobs,

said Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) 2. The lockdown imposed by the
government has impacted economic and commercial activities and resulted in job loss. As
unemployment was spreading quicker than Covid-19 we examined the ways to counter
this situation. We found that the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium enterprises played a
significant role by increasing employment opportunities, providing funds and training for
entrepreneurs which is the best way to counter this increasing unemployment rate. The
Indian Micro Small & Medium Enterprises sector is the backbone of the national
economic structure and has unremittingly acted as bulwark for the Indian economy.
MSMEs are those industries in which production, manufacturing and providing services
are executed on a small or micro scale. In a country like India, the small scale industries
play a very vital role in generating employment, improving the financial status of people,
development of rural areas and removing the regional imbalances.
2
India stares at double digit unemployment rate, 10 million losses jobs (Business Today)
https://www.businesstoday.in/sectors/jobs/india-stares-at-double-digit-unemployment-rate-10-million-job-losses-in-
may-cmie/story/440180.ht ml
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MSMEs( Micro, Small, Medium

Enterprises) is a major factor of
increased employment generation,
development of entrepreneurial skills
among the urban & rural population,
has around 63.4 million units
throughout the country, contributes
around 6.11% of the manufacturing
GDP, 24.63% of the GDP from
service activities and around 40% of
of the total exports done by India3, and So we wanted to know the welfare schemes
introduced by the Ministry of MSME amid the Covid-19 lockdown for the
development of the economy. So, through this write-up we would like to point out that
unemployment and poverty are just a hurdle and not a city wall to jump. Awareness
about the schemes introduced amid the lockdown situation is a must among the rural
& youth population.

APPLICABLE STATUTORY PROVISIONS

The conceptual and legal framework for small scale and ancillary industrial undertakings
is derived from the Industries Development and Regulation Act, 1951. The Small and
Medium Enterprises Development Bill 2005 which was enacted in June 2006 was
renamed as “Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006” aims at
facilitating the promotion and development of small and medium enterprises. MSMEs are
governed by Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 (MSMED Act,
2006 – hereafter referred as “Act”) which came into force w.e.f. 02.10.2006 4.

3
https://taxguru.in/
4
Indian Kanoon, https://indiankanoon.org/doc/352833/
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Salient Feature of the Act: Setting up of a National Board for MSME’s, Classification of
Enterprises, Advisory committees to support MSME’s, Measures for promotion
development and enhancement of MSME’s, Schemes to control delayed payments to MSME’s,
Enactment of rules by State Governments to implement the MSME’s Act, 2006 in their
respective states.

On 13/05/2020, FM have announced to revise the basis on which enterprises is to be

classified as Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises 5. Investment Limit will be revised
upwards and additionally criteria of turnover being introduced. Distinction between
manufacturing and service sector is eliminated.

QUESTIONS ASKED:
❏ Please provide the annual report of the Ministry of MSME for the financial year 2020-
2021.
❏ Provide information on the schemes introduced amid the Covid-19 lockdown for the
development of MSMEs and skill development programs conducted
❏ Provide amounts allocated for subsidy programs, schemes and the number of
beneficiaries of those programs

The first question was to receive full information about the ministry and how it’s functioning.

The second question is to receive information and create awareness on currently available
schemes and new schemes introduced to battle this Covid -19 crisis.

The third question is to create accountability and to find out the highly and lowly funded or
focused areas of operation in the ministry.

5
The Economic Times, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/msmes -new-classification-to-
be-effective-from-july-revised-criteria-announced/an-upward-revision/slideshow/76176965.cms 3 Jun 2020
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RELEVANT PARTS OF THE RESPONSE

Our Motive from the beginning is to create awareness among people to use the incentives
given by our government as unemployment is something that shouldn't be an excuse to
any citizen. So I’ve listed out some important parts of the response which will help
people know about the various development schemes and other programs given by our
Govt.

RELEVANT INFO. RECEIVED FROM THE 1st QUESTION

❏ To facilitate the enterprises to take benefits of various schemes, the Office of

Development Commissioner (MSME) has launched a web-based application
module, namely, MyMSME. This can also be accessed through a mobile app.
Entrepreneurs can apply, get to know about the prevailing schemes & training
programs, make their applications and track it as well on their mobile itself
❏ A job portal “MSME SAMPARK '' launched by the Hon’ble President of India is
a digital platform wherein job seekers and recruiters can register themselves for
mutually beneficial interaction. As on 18.01.2021, a total of 468759 passed out
trainees (job seekers) and 5947 recruiters (job provider) have registered.
❏ The Ministry has been organizing a number of skill development programs/
courses for the existing & potential entrepreneurs, in order to build their capacity.
These training are provided under various schemes such as MSME-TCs,
Assistance to Training Institutions (ATI), National SC/ST Hub, Capacity Building,
Coir Vikas Yojana- Skill Upgradation & Mahila Coir Yojana, etc
❏ Government has operationalized Rs. 3,00,000 crore collateral free loan scheme
which is likely to benefit 45 lakh MSMEs. It seeks to provide much needed relief
to the MSME sector by incentivizing Member Lending Institutes (MLIs) to
provide additional credit at low cost, thereby enabling MSMEs to meet their
operational liabilities and restart their business
❏ An online portal has been made operational for disbursement of funds under the
Modified Market Development Assistance (MMDA) and Interest subsidy
Eligibility Certificate (ISEC) scheme to Khadi Institutions and Artisans.
Institutions are uploading data and filing their MMDA and ISEC claims from the
financial year 2016 - 17 onwards in DBT Portal.
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❏ The Technology Centers set up by the Ministry of MSME play a crucial role in
providing practical skill development training to more than 2 lakh unemployed
youth and industry workforce per year. 76 courses have been developed in
compliance with the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF). MSME TCs
are regularly participating in various Skill Competition programmes both at
National & International level. Due to COVID 19 pandemic, Technology Centres
have started online training programs.
❏ NSIC provides credit support for raw material procurement by making the
payment to suppliers in the Raw Material Assistance scheme against Bank
Guarantee. NSIC also facilitates financing by providing assistance to MSMEs
under schemes such as Tender Marketing Scheme.

RELEVANT INFO RECEIVED FROM 2nd QUESTION

Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Program (PMEGP)

The scheme aims to generate employment opportunities in rural as well

as urban areas of the country through setting up of new self-employment
ventures/projects/micro enterprises. Besides, the scheme also seeks to provide continuous
and sustainable employment to all segments of traditional and prospective artisans and
rural / urban unemployed youth in the country, so as to help arrest migration of rural
youth to urban areas. The scheme also focuses to increase the wage earning capacity of
artisans and contribute to increase in the growth rate of rural and urban employment The
Scheme is implemented by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), as the
nodal agency at the National level. At the State level, the Scheme is implemented through
State KVIC Directorates, State Khadi and Village Industries Boards (KVIBs) and District
Industries Centers (DICs) and banks

Online EDP training portal has been introduced and beneficiaries are being encouraged to
take on-line EDP training in prevailing Covid-19 conditions. Till 31.12.2020, around
45,000 beneficiaries have received EDP training online. Training centers of MSME-DIs,
NSIC, NI-MSME, etc. are also being enrolled for online and classroom EDP training.
Diversification of products by PMEGP units has been permitted to increase the economic
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viability of the units according to market needs and the prevailing Covid19
circumstances .

RELEVANT INFO FROM QUESTION 3:

The information regarding the beneficiaries of the PMEGP scheme given in the
response is that General Category beneficiaries can avail of margin money subsidy of
25% of the project cost in rural areas and 15% in urban areas. For special categories such
as SC/ST/OBC/minorities/woman/ex-serviceman/handicapped/NER, etc. the margin
money subsidy is 35% in rural areas and 25% in urban areas.

Distribution of SC/ ST / OBC/General enterprises as Main Schemes of the ministry with the benefit type, No. of beneficiaries
per Udayam Registrations and expenditure

Highest investment has been made in Micro enterprises in both urban and rural as micro sector can be
easily financed but yields huge profits.
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