Kolkata, Nov. 23 -- The Bengal government is planning a ground-level study of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) clusters across the state in a bid to augment capacity in the sector, as part of a new initiative to train, modernise and strengthen small enterprises under the World Bank-supported RAMP programme.
Sources confirmed that the department of MSME & Textiles has invited agencies to map sector-wise challenges faced by small units and design targeted training programmes that can help enterprises improve skills, adopt technology, access markets and operate more sustainably.
The exercise begins with a detailed Training Needs Assessment (TNA) involving interactions with entrepreneurs, focus group discussions, enterprise visits and consultations with district industries centres and industry associations.
An official said that at least three clusters per sector will be identified for assessment. The TNA will study technical, managerial, financial, digital and compliance-related skill gaps and also review existing training infrastructure before preparing a sector-specific training roadmap. The programme will cover key MSME sectors across three zones of the state. Leather units in and around Kolkata form Zone-1, while plastics and chemicals, gems and jewellery and handicrafts clusters are spread across Zone-2 (North Bengal) and Zone-3 (rest of Bengal). Engineering goods, textiles and packaged and processed food units are included in the North Bengal and rest-of-state zones as well.
Training topics outlined by the department include awareness of government schemes, onboarding MSMEs to the ONDC network, financial literacy, GST compliance, digital marketing, e-commerce enablement, export readiness, product development, advanced manufacturing, sector-specific technologies and sustainable and environmentally compliant practices.
These will be finalised based on gaps identified through the needs assessment.
Each selected agency will conduct around 50 training sessions, with a minimum of 50 MSME participants in each
session. Agencies would need to plan and deliver the sessions across districts, coordinate with local authorities, ensure multilingual support where needed and collect participant feedback and assessment data, said the official.
The entire cycle-assessment, training content preparation and delivery-is to be completed within four months. Officials expect the initiative to strengthen MSME competitiveness, improve product quality, encourage technology adoption and widen market access across the state.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.