Kalam's 9-point Mission for SSIs

Innovate or Stagnate. That was the advice of Bharata Ratna Dr APJ Abdul Kalam to an assembly of industrialists convened by Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (KASSIA), on saturday, minutes before he drove down to Vidhana Soudha, where he was to be bestowed with the prestigious Basava Award by the Karnataka Government.

Addressing a packed audience at the JN Tata Auditorium at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, the former President of India spoke on how "SSI leads to integrated economic prosperity" and suggested a 9-point mission plan for small scale industries (SSIs). The nine missions are as follows:

• 10 million out of 12 million units in small scale sector employing 28 million overall, are unregistered. SSI Ministry should analyse why so many are unregistered and find an innovative solution.

• Ministry to initiate mission mode programmes to revive the nearly 1.4 lakh sick SSI units in a time-bound manner before end-2007.

• Increase the contribution of exports from SSI to $40 bn from the present $20 bn over the next five years, by focusing on export of garments, processed foods, pharma and cosmetic products.

• Government to establish at least one growth pole in each of the 60 districts of India within the next two years, to facilitate expansion of production and employment in small and micro enterprises.

• SSI Ministry in collaboration with RBI should bring out a simplified procedure of sanction of working capital limits on the basis of 20% of the projected annual turnover to all enterprises.

• In the value chain of a product's life cycle, the design effort contributes 50% of the total value Therefore, the cost and quality of a product must necessarily be inbuilt right at the design stage with value engineering criteria.

• SSIs should look at outsourcing and sub-contracting to cottage industries and homes wherever applicable, to reduce the product cost and add competitive edge to their products.

• SSIs should commission extraction plants for producing cost-effective bio-fuel.

• A national survey should be commissioned to establish the total number of SSIs in the country, assess their performance and identify their problems, in a six-month timeframe, so that appropriate corrective steps can be taken to strengthen this vital sector.