The two-day summit was inaugurated by Mr Giriraj Singh, Honourable Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India. It focused on fine-tuning strategies adopted to promote energy efficiency among MSMEs. Detailed deliberations were carried out on three key domains of MSME – (1) Finance, (2) Technology and (3) Capacity building, which are important for growth of MSME sector in India.
In his inaugural address, Mr Giriraj Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises), highlighted the need for adoption of energy efficient technologies and practices in MSMEs. This offers great potential for reduction in CO2 emissions as well as helps in improving product quality and profitability. The Minister also launched the new web-site of SAMEEEKSHA (Small and Medium Enterprises Energy Efficiency Knowledge Sharing), a knowledge portal developed under TERI-SDC partnership project that aims to pool the knowledge and synergise the efforts of various organisations and institutions that are promoting the adoption of clean, energy efficient technologies and practices among MSMEs.
Concurring with the Minister, Dr. Andreas Baum, Ambassador of Switzerland said that macro challenges in MSME in India are efficient use of energy and skill up-gradation of workers. Highlighting SDC’s contribution in MSME sector in India since 1994 especially in energy-intensive sub-sectors like Glass and Foundry, he urged the participants to deliberate on developing a road map for energy efficiency in MSME sector considering low hanging fruits through collaborative efforts.
Mr Abhay Bakre stressed on the need for conducive policy formulation and focused approach for replication of demonstrated technologies in MSMEs for wider adoption. Dr Ajay Mathur highlighted the importance of technology matching and customisation for wider adoption of Energy Efficient (EE) technologies. He stressed on the need to bring together the key stakeholders such as R&D institutions, industry associations, government bodies, bilateral/multilateral agencies, technology experts for enhancing energy efficiency in MSME sector.
While chairing a lively session on “Adoption of energy efficient technologies – challenges and opportunities” Ms Marylaure Crettaz, Head of Swiss Cooperation Office India (SCOI) emphasised on the need to adopt and adapt the energy efficient technology and formulate strategies for its rapid scaling up in India.
The summit was attended by more than 200 participants representing various stakeholders including policy makers, state designated agencies, industry associations from different MSME clusters/sectors, bi-lateral/multi-lateral organisations, banks and financial institutions and technical consultancy organisations.
For more information, please contact:
Dr. Anand Shukla, Senior Advisor - Energy, Email: anand.shukla@eda.admin.ch
