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‘Need to stand up for MSMEs...people expect govt to bat for them’: Jaishankar
In a separate virtual event, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also spoke about the schemes meant to uplift small businesses in the country.
Minister of external affairs S Jaishankar called for support to domestic businesses, especially micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) on Friday. “This realisation is very sharp in India. We need to stand up for our business and that doesn't mean just big business, it means MSMEs,” Jaishankar said, according to news agency ANI.
The minister asserted that it is the government’s responsibility to support domestic businesses and that India has so far not done enough in this regard. “People today expect the government to bat for them. It's not just the business of Indian diplomacy to do business, it's the business of the government to support businesses. Every government in the world does that, we in India haven't done that enough and I think that is changing,” he was quoted as saying by ANI.
Jaishankar was addressing the fifth Asia Economic Dialogue (AED) 2021, the theme for which this year is 'Post Covid-19 Global Trade and Finance Dynamics'. The conference saw international participation from foreign ministers of a number of countries, senior bureaucrats, industry leaders and global financial experts, according to ANI.
In a separate virtual event, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also spoke about the schemes meant to uplift small businesses in the country. “Self-reliant India will be made of our MSMEs, will be made of our startups. That is why special schemes were formulated for MSMEs during the Covid-19 pandemic under which around 90 lakh enterprises have been given credit worth ₹2.4 trillion,” he said while addressing a webinar on aspects relating to financial services in this year’s budget, presented by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman earlier this month.
“Self-reliant India will not be made up of just big industries or big cities. In a self-reliant India village, small entrepreneurs in small towns will be made up of the hard work of ordinary Indians. It will be made up of farmers, units making agricultural products better,” Modi added.
