Lok Sabha Question No. 2043 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-12-14
Subject: Digital Public Infrastructure
Ministry: MICRO,SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES
Asked by: C. R. Patil, Anurag Sharma, Ramapati Ram Tripathi, P.P. Chaudhary, Sangamlal Kadedin Gupta, Pratap Chandra Sarangi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF MICRO, SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2043 TO BE ANSWERED ON 14.12.2023

## DIGITAL PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE

2043. SHRI C.R. PATIL: SHRI ANURAG SHARMA: DR. RAMAPATI RAM TRIPATHI: SHRI P.P. CHAUDHARY: SHRI SANGAM LAL GUPTA: SHRI PRATAP CHANDRA SARANGI:

Will the Minister of MICRO, SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES be pleased to state:

(a) whether  the  Government  has  taken  steps  to  build  and  develop  Digital  Public  Infrastructure (DPI) for the MSME sector;

(b) if so, the details thereof;

(c) whether the Government has taken steps to upskill the MSME sector workforce to help them adopt the Digital Public Infrastructure, if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;

(d) whether the Government has taken any steps to use technology such as big data and Artificial Intelligence in order to provide easy, cheap and timely credit to the MSME sector; and

(e) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR MICRO, SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (SHRI BHANU PRATAP SINGH VERMA)

(a) & (b): The Government  has taken several steps to build and develop Digital Public Infrastructure. Most of the infrastructure thus developed is for common usage such as Government eMarketplace  (GeM),  Unified  Payments  Interface  (UPI)  payment  system  for  financial  transactions, Digital  Locker,  Aadhaar,  Unified  Mobile  Application  for  new-Age  Governance  (UMANG),  MyGov etc.,  which  have  significantly  improved  digital  infrastructure  in  the  country.  The  Ministry  of  Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) has built various tools and portals to run its own schemes and programme,  which  inter-alia  include  single  window  on-line  Udyam  Registration  portal  for  MSME registration,  MSME  Champions  Portal  for  grievance  redressal,  MSME  Global  Mart  Portal  for marketing support, MSME SAMBANDH and MSME SAMADHAAN for monitoring of procurement and delayed payment by Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) from Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs).

(c): The Government has taken several steps to upskill the MSME workforce to help them adopt digital  public  infrastructure  through  training,  skilling  and  conducting  digital  literacy  drives  through Skill India, Integrated Government Online Training (iGOT) Karmayogi Platform and the like.

The  Ministry  of  MSME  has  many  schemes  such  as  Entrepreneurship  Skill  Development Programme (ESDP) to provide training through Tool Rooms, Technology Centres,  MSMEDevelopment  and  Facilitation  Offices  (MSME-DFOs)  and  Entrepreneurship  Development  Institutes (EDIs).  Furthermore,  the  Government  is  helping  MSMEs  onboard  e-market  and  Digital  commerce through Open Network Digital Commerce (ONDC).

(d) & (e): In order to improve digital services and use big data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide easy, cheap and timely credit to the MSME sector, various methodologies have been developed which,  inter-alia  includes  Trade  Receivables  Discounting  System,  Regulatory  Sandbox  and  Account Aggregator Framework. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has created Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) platform for solving the issue of delayed payments, opened the Regulatory Sandbox to spur innovations that can fill the lending gap for MSMEs through the use of technology and data analytics,  and  set-up  the  Account  Aggregator  (AA)  framework  to  make  sharing  and  aggregation  of financial data possible in a secure, transparent, and efficient manner.

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