Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises - New Delhi

The successful introduction of TS-iPass scheme by State government in 2014 has attracted in just seven years over Rs.4.1 trillion investment, generated around five lakh direct jobs and equal number of indirect jobs, despite Covid-19, according to the study on development of Telangana released jointly by Dr D S Rawat, Chairman, MSME Export Promotion Council and Mr Jigish Sonagara, Founder & CEO BillMart Fintech, a knowledge firm here today.

The study jointly undertaken by the MSME EPC and BillMart has revealed that the State has achieved an unique position of projects getting clearances from 38 different departments in a span of less than ten days. The initiative, said Dr Rawat, has significantly contributed to the ‘ease of doing business in the State. The achievement in attracting fresh investment has been much higher than the investments received in a 7 year span prior to the introduction of the scheme.

Referring the CMIE CapEx data base, Rawat said, in terms of count of projects announced, there has been a surge. Prior to the TS-iPass scheme, 1126 project announcements were made and it increased o 1461 post the implementation of the scheme which is 30 per cent increase in the project count.

The quantum of projects that are under implementation has been progressing well y-o-y and in 2020-21, 218 projects worth Rs.399 billion were under implementation against 109 projects worth Rs.309.6 billion in 2019-20 under implementation which is around a 29 per cent higher.

The study says “with the TS-iPass scheme expediting clearances of projects, the count of projects that went under implementation witnessed a spike. In the 7 years from 2014-15 to 2020-21, 1124 projects were granted clearances that helped them move to the under implementation phase, the 7 years prior to this period had 831 projects in the pipeline. Even in terms of the value of projects there has been a 94 per cent increase.

Mr Rawat further said, providing timely project clearances and approvals, the ratio of projects completed to the total projects outstanding in the under implementation phase also shot-up. From 2007-08 to 2013-14 period, the completion rate was within the range of 0.4.4 per cent whereas in the years that followed the era of speed and the completion rate picked up significantly with a range from 1.2-5.3 per cent.

Mr Sonagara said, as per the CMIE report, as on 31 May 2022, the new investment in the state by all (government, private sector and foreign direct investment) have significantly increased and though youngest yet fastest growing states. In 2019-20, the new investment projects announced were worth Rs.518222.8 million, investment projects completed were worth Rs..123524.7 million and Rs.47449 million worth of projects were revived.

Due to Covid and lock-down in 2020-21, the new projects announced were on lesser side and worth Rs.309756.2 million, investment projects completed were worth Rs.149473.7 million and the investment projects revived worth Rs,5665 million.

However, the year 2021-22 witnessed a sharp increase in the new investment projects announced and touched to Rs.41363.7 million, new investment projects completed were of Rs.202793.7 million and Rs.76600.0 million investment projects were revived.

The per capita income of the state increased by 125 per cent in the past seven years from Rs.1,24,104 in 2014-15 to Rs.2,78,833 in 2021-22. The gross state domestic products (GSDP) increased fro Rs.5 lakh crore in 2014-15 to Rs.11.54 lakh crore in 2021-22, as the state has shown rapid and robust economic growth amidst a global and national economic slowdown.

The study says the agriculture and allied activities in the state have been consistently progressing. While in 2018-19, the total food grains production was 9275.2 (000 tons), 2019-20 the total production of food grains went up to 11,125 (000 tons) and in 2020-21 likely to go up by over 50 per cent. The exceptional increase in agricultural output was possible due to a large expansion in cultivable area. The state’s rabi acreage fell sharply by 33.4 per cent because lower area brought under paddy cultivation.

There has been a significant improvement in the livestock industry. It was found that the meat production recorded the highest increase of 8.5 per cent in 2020-21, egg production increased by 7 per cent and milk production increased by 3.1 per cent. As a result of the various promotional schemes launched by the state, the livestock production is expected to increase further.

Mr Sonagara said, it is estimated that the state has 26.05 lakh MSMEs; micro sector 25.94 lakh, small 0.10 lakh and 0.01 lakh in medium sector providing employment to over 40 lakh people. Though the state and central government have announced various policy initiatives, this sector is confronted with various problems such as technology, availability of timely competitive credit, lack of access to financial solutions, etc.

In this connection, he said, over 95% of the micro units are not able to access the credit due to lack of knowledge, not maintenance of proper records/documents necessarily needed for availing various available incentives and exploring credit from other than banks such as NBFCs/FinTech companies. Even globally, fintech investment is growing @ 14 per cent annually and already crossed $44 billion in 2020.and may touch $65 billion towards the end 2022.

Therefore, the BillMart has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the MSME EPC and other regional/state level associations and chambers to help their constituents in the MSME sector to skill them on how to make use of technology for growth of their businesses and up-date their data. Mr Rawat said, especially from the micro and small scale sector, despite host of policy incentives being provided by the Centre and State government,
large number of them are not able to take benefit due to incomplete data. Once their data are updated, and entrepreneurial skilling on technology use was provided, the two institutions will help them to receive credit timely and at competitive rate.

The BillMart chief said “BillMart has launched a MSME GAIN (growth and intelligence network) with a vision to benefit one crore MSMEs with 100 crores hours of knowledge upgradation by 2024. It will endeavour to empower the businesses to decide the most suitable and customized financial solutions for their businesses.