Private and Public Sector Take Moves to Bolster MSMEs

Private and Public Sector Take Moves to Bolster MSMEs

The Indian business ecosystem has immensely accelerated since last year. The health crisis hit the nation and shattered businesses, especially MSMEs. In reality, MSMEs render employment to a large number of people and additionally, contribute the largest in the country’s economy. Understanding the significance of the MSMEs, the Indian government has begun shoring up small and micro businesses. 

Besides this, private organisations are apprehending the role of MSMEs in the system and taking adequate measures as well as initiatives to uplift them. Of late, an array of deals occurred backing up small businesses, in turn, trying to bring stability in the market. 

Assisting in Digital Shift 

Owing to the ongoing health crisis, small companies have to adopt digitization. While many companies adapted to the new change, on the other hand, fewer companies failed to do so. Witnessing the chaos, Mastercard has lately rolled out Strive, a global initiative focused on strengthening the financial resilience of small businesses and supporting their recovery and growth.

According to a report by Business Wire, with an initial philanthropic investment of $25 million from the Mastercard Impact Fund, Strive will help more than five million micro and small businesses around the world access the tools and resources they need to digitize.

"This program builds on lessons learned and a body of work developed as part of Mastercard’s long-term focus on financial inclusion," Shamina Singh, President and Founder of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, said in the company’s official statement. 

Meeting Needs This Festive Season 

As the festive season is approaching, consumers’ demand would be increasing. To keep up with the rising demands of the customers, small businesses would need additional capital. Addressing this issue, HDFC Bank and Paytm  have proclaimed plans to launch a series of credit cards powered by global card network Visa in October.

As per Mint’s report, the credit cards will be customized to meet distinct needs of retail customers, from new-to-credit users to affluent users and offer one of the best-in-class rewards and cashback for users.

The report also stated that with over 51 million credit cards, debit cards and prepaid cards and over 2 million merchants, addressing every market segment, every third rupee spent on cards in India happens on HDFC Bank cards. The alliance will target deeper penetration in tier-II and tier-III markets and enable faster acceleration of digitized payments across the country.

Accelerating Business Registration 

Last year, the government created an online MSME registration website, Udyam Registration. Of late, the platform has reached close to 50 lakh registrations since its launch in July, 2020. 

According to Financial Express’ report, the first 25 lakh registrations were recorded on the new paperless portal in eight months (on March 5, 2021) while the following 25 lakh registrations are likely to be achieved in less than eight months – by October. 

The available online data on registrations on the Udyam Registration portal by the MSME Ministry showed 49,01,586 MSMEs have already registered. This included new MSME registrations as well as Udyog Aadhaar Memorandum (UAM) holders who migrated to the new portal. 

Moves taken by the private firm, as well as public bodies, have normalised the jostled business environment. These transactions will be bolstering small businesses that are on the brink of dejection, thus, taking them toward the right direction.