13 August :The Annual General Meeting of National Institute for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Society (nimsme society) held here today under the chairmanship of Minister of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME), Shri Mahabir Prasad.
Addressing the meeting, the Minister lauded the achievements of the institutes so far, yet, expressed concern over the decline in income of the institute from 934 lakh rupees in 2006-07 to 826 lakh rupees in 2007-08. He also expressed concern that during this period the total number of training programmes have registered a decline from 255 to 215 resulting a fall in number of trainees from 7235 to 5588. He called upon the officials and faculty of the institute to do everything possible to augment the services of the institute.
Shri Mahabir Prasad said that so far the institute has provided training in different areas to more than one lakh trainees both from domestic and international market and provided assistance to the Union Government in formulating policies conducive to small enterprise promotion.
Secretary, MSME, Shri Dinesh Rai disclosed that the Ministry has allowed the institute to increase the intake of foreign trainees particularly from African nations from the year 2008-09. He said this year the institute may provide training to 350 candidates from the African countries and is aiming to provide overall training to 15,000 candidates from domestic and other markets.
Earlier, the Governing Council of the institute held its Second Meeting under the chairmanship of Shri Mahabir Prasad, Minister for MSME, Secretary, MSME, Shri Dinesh Rai and other Members of the Council attended the meeting. During the meeting, the budget estimates, 11th Five Year Plan and achievement and draft annual report and audited statement of accounts of the institute were approved.