8-Mar-2020: President of India Presents Nari Shakti Puraskar

The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, presented Nari Shakti Puraskar on the occasion of International Women’s Day at a function held at Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre (RBCC) today (March 8, 2020). (Brief profile of the Awardees of Nari Shakti Puraskar is attached)

The Nari Shakti Puraskar, instituted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, are "National Award in recognition of exceptional work for women empowerment" conferred every year on March 8 as a mark of respect and recognition for those who have demonstrated exemplary courage and stellar contribution towards empowerment of women.

Before the award presentation ceremony, a special screening of ‘Swachh Bharat – India’s Sanitation Story’ was held at RBCC for the audience. This short film showcases the massive behaviour change that occurred across rural India under the Swachh Bharat Mission, and the role that women played in leading over 55 crore people to shun the age-old practice of open defecation.

27-Feb-2020: National MSME Awards Function Held

Shri Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and Road Transport & Highways has stated that Government of India is working on reducing restrictions in order to increase ease of doing business in MSME Sector.  Praising the contribution of MSME industries in the economic development of the country, Shri Gadkari said that there is a huge potential in the sector for creating more jobs, contributing to more export earnings by the sector. Shri Gadkari was speaking at a function after giving away awards to MSMEs for excellent performance in various areas yesterday in New Delhi. He said that excellence shown by awardees will motivate entrepreneurs all over the country to strive for higher standards of performance and will be emulated by many more entrepreneurs.

The Minister also stated that Government is working on enhancing availability of finance to the sector and the banks have done better in terms of providing loans this year.  He also suggested that better performing MSMEs should go into capital market and get investments from the public which will increase their share value providing returns to the investors and making availability on investments to such an enterprises.

Complementing the efforts of the National MSME Awards, Shri Gadkari said that such recognition provides greater motivations to those who render excellent performance.  He assured that Government stands by the MSME sector and will work towards their betterment. Shri Gadkari said, “Considering the importance of your contribution to the economy, exports and employment, I believe that the wellbeing of the country can be secured through the wellbeing of the MSMEs. It is in this light that I have asked my officers to design the Schemes and initiatives to be growth oriented, inclusive and environment friendly”. He added that “we are in the process of redirecting our schemes towards empowerment of MSMEs through creation of infrastructure, enabling access to finance, technology, market and skilling. All this has to be done in an atmosphere conducive to ease of doing business”.

Minister of State for MSME & Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries Shri Pratap Chandra Sarangi while complementing the winners of National Awards, said that MSME sector is playing an important role in the development and growth of the country. He called upon the winners to motivate more people to turn into employers and create more valuation in the MSME sector. Referring to the significant role of MSME sector in the exports from India, he called for greater direct exports by the MSME enterprises.

Speaking on the occasion Dr. Arun Kumar Panda, Secretary, MSME stated that the Government is working on facilitating the MSME sector in the country.  He informed that GST is leading to maximum formalization of the economy and the biggest chunk in this regard is coming from MSMEs.   He informed that a single portal in 22 languages is being developed which will provide information to all schemes for MSMEs at a single platform. A global market intelligence system is also being developed which will provide information related to exports to the MSME sector industries.

National MSME Awards were instituted in 1983 to felicitate the outstanding performers in the MSME sector in the areas of Entrepreneurship (Manufacturing & Services), Product Quality, Innovation, Exports and Lean Manufacturing Techniques. The awards are also conferred to the Department of the States / UTs Government, dealing with the MSME sector, for their outstanding efforts for the promotion & development of the MSMEs in their jurisdiction. So far, since 1983, 24 number of National MSME Award function have been organized and awardees have been conferred awards.

The Winners of the National Award have the privilege of using the symbol of the Award in their respective letter heads and their employees can wear labels, pins, ties or other distinctive badges with Award symbol. During the event, 46 awardees were conferred awards under various categories and 4 awards were given to different States and UTs for Outstanding Performance.