For Sanjay Shah, chief operating officer, India/South East Asia, Wadhwani Foundation, the country’s MSME sector will play a vital role in creating job-led economic growth, which has taken a hit post the pandemic.
The Wadhwani Foundation has set a target of creating 10 million jobs and skilling about 25 million people across 2 0 emerging economies by 2030. In line with its vision, the foundation also plans to establish a run rate of one million new annual jobs through startups and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
It will enable 10,000 high-potential startups annually, give entrepreneurship education to 5,00,000 students and train and place 2.5 million students annually by 2025.
The foundation’s SME-led initiative, Wadhwani Advantage, has an SME growth focus program for larger SMEs and a DIY program to scale up small SMEs. The DIY platform is meant to provide an ‘SME Social Network’ for peer-to-peer networking and help connect to advisors and customers.
Additionally, Wadhwani Advantage also provides diagnostics support and helpdesk to SMEs. “The world is changing, and small businesses need to keep pace or they will be left behind. They should know their markets well, be confident of their product lines, and maintain competitive pricing. Today, for example, access to cost-effective finance is mainly digital,” says Shah.
“Digitisation will allow them access to broader sets of suppliers and customers, better payment systems, and broader market visibility, allowing them to scale while eliminating manual inefficiencies,” he adds
