The Indian Express Group, on Friday, organized a series of panel discussions focusing on the MSME sector in West Bengal.

“We and our Chief Minister are laying emphasis, to ensure that the MSME sector receives proper infrastructure, benefits and complete support in the state, which are not available in other states of the country. We have been pursuing many schemes and policies for the state MSME to get direct benefits. For the last 8-10 years, this sector has covered a huge amount of state affairs. The bank credit to MSME in 2011 was 8 thousand crores and last year was 1.27 lakh crores. This year we are going to touch about one and a half lakh crores,” Pandey said while addressing the event.

According to the panelists, in recent times, MSME is being considered as the backbone of the Indian economy and their contribution in accelerating the economic growth of the nation has increased manifold in the last 5 years.

In West Bengal, MSMEs account for more than 90% of the active industrial units, 50% of the industrial production, and 40% of the exports from the State.

The gathering was attended by 150 delegates representing various segments of the MSME ecosystem in West Bengal.

(Taniya Acherjee works as an intern with the Kolkata office of The Indian Express)