'Govt not giving priority to SME sector'

BANGALORE, INDIA: Even though SME is a blue-chip sector where majority of innovations happen, the government’s priorities lie elsewhere which hinder the growth of the sector, said Dr. Anant Koppar, chairman and CEO, KTwo Technologies.

Koppar further said that in order to accelerate business of SMEs, they need to have a clear cut vision to modernize and adopt technology which will chart out a roadmap for the company to move upwards.

He was speaking at a conference on 'IT for SMEs: Success and Growth' organised by the Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC).

Koppar is also of a view that poor management and administrative structures are creating hindrances to the growth of SMEs in the country, “Poor management and administrative structures are some of the issues SMEs are facing today. When a group of people launch a venture, they don't know where to start and who should head the company and all. Administrative structures in such companies are restrictive and bureaucratic.”

Also read: Govt ignoring SMEs: Ex-Nasscom chief

About IT adoption among SMEs in India, Koppar said, “Most of the traditional SMEs think that IT is not for them and it is expensive. They are not ready to deploy a separate resource for IT in their business. It is a must that the managements leverages latest technologies in order to bring in competitiveness in his business.”

In a separate speech, M.N. Vidyashankar, IAS, principal secretary, IT/BT Government of Karnataka, said that the emerging eco-system for research and development is slated to get a big boost, with the Karnataka Government planning to emulate the model of Taiwanese Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in giving an impetus to the concept of co-ordination between industry and research establishments.

ITRI, which promotes research as an incubation concept, will be extending its co-operation to the state government in setting up multi-disciplinary Science and Technology R&D centres on a 14,000-acre complex on the outskirts of the city.

The ITRI which is jointly promoted by Taiwanese government and industry follows the model of facilitating entrepreneurs to source development and innovation of their product upto the patenting level. The highlight of the incubation model of ITRI is that the patent rights lies with the entrepreneur and not with the institution.

The one-day conference was organized to highlight the importance of adoption of IT by the SMEs to improve their business objectives and enhance their competitiveness in the globalised economy. Renowned experts from various sector deliberated on the salient aspects of evolving technology landscape of IT and their easy adoption by SMEs as an imperative tool, and not as an option.