Many non-official members of the newly established 46-member Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) Board have connections to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), reported the Indian Express on April 14, 2021 while focusing on the group tasked with policy review.
A breakdown of the 20-member list is as follows: Bihar BJP MLA Kundan Kumar; Andhra Pradesh BJP ex-MLA Penmetsa Vishnu Kumar Raju; Haryana candidate Yashvir Dagar; Odisha BJP candidate Pravat Keshari Mishra; Delhi BJP Spokesperson Teena Sharma; BJP Purvanchal Morcha member Rashmi Mishra; BJP Manipur Pradesh Treasurer Robin Blackei; Punjab BJP Executive Rakesh Gupta; Maharashtra BJP Udyog Aghadi President Pradip Peshkar; Hemalben Mehta who has been BJP Yuva Morcha Vice President and is the wife of Gujarat BJP Secretary Amit Thaker; Laghu Udyog Bharati (LUB) President Baldevbhai Govindbhai Prajapati; LUB National Coordinator and ex-national executive member of BJYM Naresh Chand Pareek; LUB Secretary Sampat Toshniwal.
As per Section 3 of the MSME Development Act, these 20 members “represent associations of micro, small and medium enterprises,” with at least three persons representing associations of women’s enterprises and at least three persons representing associations of micro enterprises. Accordingly, the MSME Ministry said that all the above-mentioned people have business links.
Further, as per the Act, the Board with 26 official members is chaired by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. Other members are: the Minister of State; six state government ministers; three MPs; a UT administrator; MSME Secretary; Commerce and Industry, Finance, Food processing, Labour and Planning Secretaries; a national bank Chairman; a small industries bank Chairman; an IBA Chairman; one RBI official; three persons of eminence, two representatives of Central Trade Union Organisations; one MSME official not below the rank of Joint Secretary.
Along with Minister of State Pratap Chandra Sarangi as the Vice-Chairman, the board has Ministers In-charge of MSME from Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Assam. The three MPs appointed are: BJP’s Shankar Lalwani; YSRCP’s Beesetti Venkata Satyavathi; TRS’s Banda Prakash.
Again, in the eminent persons category, industrialist Pravin Kumar Agarwal is the BJP Siliguri President, economist Smita Yashwant Ghaisas is the LUB Vice President and Ayuron Implants MD Utpal Parrikar is the son of late BJP leader Manohar Parrikar.
The previous board constituted of from CII, FICCI, Assocham and PHD CCI as well as representatives from the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) and the Dalit India Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The 2021 Union Budget allocated Rs. 15,699.65 crore to the MSME Ministry. This includes Rs 10,000 crore towards the Centre’s Guarantee Emergency Credit Line (GECL) facility to eligible MSME borrowers.
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