Lok Sabha Question No. 108 (STARRED), answered on 2023-07-27
Subject: Digital Public Infrastructure for MSMEs
Ministry: MICRO,SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES
Asked by: Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Ramapati Ram Tripathi

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

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *108 TO BE ANSWERED ON: 27.07.2023

## DIGITAL PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE FOR MSMEs

*108. SHRI PRATAP CHANDRA SARANGI:

DR. RAMAPATI RAM TRIPATHI:

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 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 and 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 MICRO, SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (SHRI NARAYAN RANE)

(a) to (e): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.  *108  FOR  27.07.2023  REGARDING  'DIGITAL  PUBLIC  INFRASTRUCTURE FOR MSMEs'

- (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  e-Marketplace  (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, MSME- Development and Facilitation Offices (MSME-DFOs) and Entrepreneurship Development Institutes (EDIs). Furthermore, the Government is helping MSMEs onboard emarket 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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