CHENNAI: Efforts are on to develop strategies for application of information and communications technology (ICT) in small and medium enterprises (SME), according to Jawahar Sircar, Additional Secretary and Development Commissioner (Small Scale Industries) in the Union Government.

Pointing out that certain clusters had been identified for pilot interventions, Mr. Sircar told a seminar organised here by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) on information technology for SME manufacturing that the Centre, Confederation of Indian Industry and Microsoft were involved in the task.

Clusters

Auto components (Pune), drugs and pharmaceuticals (Ahmedabad), textiles (Tirupur), pumps and motors (Coimbatore), bicycle (Ludhiana), machine and tools (Rajkot), leather (Shantiniketan, West Bengal), readymade garments (Delhi), hand tools (Jullandhar) and electric fans (Hyderabad) were the clusters chosen for the pilot project.

The Government's idea was to let the ICT adoption be done by the enterprises on their own initiative with no governmental agency's involvement, Mr. Sircar said.

On the importance of SMEs in the country's economy, he said the sector provided employment to about 35 million. It registered about 27 per cent growth in exports last year. With the opening of economy, the resilience of the sector came to the fore.

M. Raman, Director of Industries and Commerce in the State Government, explained the difficulties experienced by SMEs using ICT on a sustained basis.

Only very few constituents of the SME sector were IT-enabled. Cost and mobility of skilled manpower were among the reasons for low penetration. Establishment of common infrastructure such as kiosks, and subsidising the cost of installing and running bandwidth communication facilities could address the requirements of the sector.

He urged the Union Government to come out with conducive policies and schemes.

N. Srinivasan, FICCI vice-president, said there had been changes in the type of SMEs over the years, in tune with market requirements. He emphasised the need for the SMEs to become more competitive and innovative.

Ar. Rm. Arun, convener, IT and communications panel in the Tamil Nadu State Council of the FICCI, said that only 17 per cent of SMEs in the country were IT-enabled.