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To enhance the competitiveness of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), the Government is in the process of finalising a scheme for the adoption of Information Technology applications in the sector, said Mr Madhav Lal, AS & DC (MSME).

"This scheme is going to be the part of National Manufacturing Competitiveness Program (NMCP) under the XI plan. In this scheme we are basically trying to encourage IT applications in MSMEs,” said Mr Madhav Lal while speaking at the conference, ’How to Use IT Smartly: To Cut Costs and Win Markets’, organised by FISME in New Delhi on September 4, 2009.

The adoption of IT applications by MSMEs will improve their efficiency, and would work as a catalyst to reduce costs, access the market and as an enabler, he said.

For the implementation of the scheme, the Ministry would be adopting cluster-approach that will be followed up by running awareness campaign, mapping of units, said Mr Madhav Lal. In addition, E-resource center will be set up in the chosen cluster catering to the needs of the MSME units. 

The Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme (CLCSS) for the technology upgradation of the Small Scale Industries which so far doesn’t cover Information Technology in its gamut of sectors, Mr Madhav Lal said “should be brought under the Scheme”. 

Mr Ravi Bharadwaj, General Manager, SMB, Dell India, speaking at the conference instructed MSMEs to go for open architecture-based products and not for proprietary one. He said MSMEs in their adoption to the IT products and services should not forget power and energy factor along with Return on Investment (ROI). Explaining the future of IT, he said by 2010, 80 per cent of the Fortune 1000 companies would switch over to “cloud computing”.