CM Stalin announces sops for home textiles sector

Chennai: Chief Minister M K Stalin announced the inclusion of home textiles manufacturing industry in the ‘Thrust Sector’ to provide subsidy for investment made in the sector through the MSME (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) department, thus benefiting thousands of companies and lakhs of workers.

Making a vow that his government was there to create opportunities and provide facilities for new business ventures, particularly the MSMEs, he called upon the people to introduce new industries and businesses that would generate jobs that would lead to the development of the social and economic environment of the locality.

He was inaugurating a conference titled, ‘Thol Kodupom Thozhilgaluku’ (we’ll lend our shoulder for industries), organized by the MSME department at Tiruppur on Thursday when he launched a plethora of schemes costing Rs 167.58 crore, laid the foundation for new projects and also distributed assistance to entrepreneurs.

Since MSMEs generated the maximum jobs in the State after agriculture, the government was keen on encouraging them and wanted the economy to not just depend on big industries but the smaller ones, he said.

It was in the growth of the MSMEs entrepreneurs were born, opening up lakhs of job opportunities,  he said. Among the 221 MoUs signed in the last 15 months after the DMK government came to power to bring in a total investment of Rs 2,20,727 crore with a potential of 3 lakh new jobs, 49 of them involved MSMEs prepared to invest Rs 1300 crore, he said.

Mentioning that 19 of those industries that signed MoUs had already launched production through a total investment of Rs 1522 crore and had provided employment for 1909 persons, Stalin said that he was meeting entrepreneurs and industrialists all over Tamil Nadu to understand their needs and formulate schemes accordingly.

Among the newly launched schemes on Thursday were the Tamil Nadu Coir Business Development Organisation (TANCOIR), Tamil Nadu Credit Guarantee Scheme (TNCGS), Tamil Nadu Trade Receivables Discounting System (TN TReDS) and Facilitating MSMEs of Tamil Nadu (FaMe TN).

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between FaMe TN and Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) in the presence of the Chief Minister, who also laid the foundation for a private industrial estate COSIMA coming up at a cost of Rs 18.13 crore with a government subsidy of Rs 9.06 crore on a 42.42 acre land.

Speaking glowingly about Tiruppur, he said the place nurtured not just entrepreneurs but also workers. Yesterday’s workers were today’s owners and today’s workers would be tomorrow’s owners was the prevailing reality in Tirupur, which produces Rs 60,000 crore worth knitwear and exported 50 percent of it, he said.

Tiruppur district had been the hub for MSMEs with 57,900 units functioning there providing jobs for eight lakh workers, he said adding that there was much more to the district that had rice mills in Kangayam and Dharapuram areas, cooking oil production units in Vellakoil and Kangeyam localities, besides the coir units, cardboard making units, powerlooms, wet grinder manufacturing facilities and poultry farms and poultry feed making factories.

With a view to upholding Social Justice in the industrial sector, too, the government had allocated Rs 30 crore for enabling startups for people from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities and the process for selecting the beneficiaries had already begun, he said.