12 Feb : The Punjab Governor and Administrator, Union Territory, Chandigarh, Gen. (Retd.), S.F. Rodrigues, PVSM VSM, while presenting the National Productivity Awards to the Entrepreneurs of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) called for giving a major boost to productivity and overall prosperity, with the focus on partnership, ‘ownership’ and empowering our 300 million people living below poverty line by upgrading their professional skills & utilizing their potential. He emphasized the need for a performance audit and analysis of our policies and programmes, in different sectors of socio-economic growth, to enable us to take corrective measures by identifying shortcomings and inadequacies.
Addressing a function jointly organized by the National Productivity Council, Ministry of Commerce and Industry Government of India in association with Department of Industries & Commerce, Government of Punjab here today, General Rodrigues pointed out that we have the knowledge, competence, manufacturing capacity & advanced technology and emphasized the need to develop our potential holistically and move ahead with faith and confidence. He said that it is matter of record that our people abroad have made their mark of with their intelligence and capabilities and achieved excellence in different areas of endeavour despite non-availability of any support system and in hostile environments. There is no reason why we cannot perform better in our own land, when we have all resources available at our disposal. He said that we have lost our focus somewhere and stressed that we have to manage the environment, by restructuring our strategies and instituting a more responsive and accountable institutional mechanism. He said that the our people living below the poverty line are the potential resource bank for meeting the requirements of our industry and other sectors of economy and we have to reinvent & restructure our approach for providing them suitable opportunities, through innovative training programmes. He emphasized that the corporate sector must come forward with various programmes to invest in their development.
Emphasizing the need for enlarging the scope of public-private partnership, General Rodrigues said that the time has come for us to strengthen this concept in every field of endeavour and build up a system for ensuring involvement and effective participation of every individual in our programmes for the betterment of our people. He said that the industrial community must take the lead in this task and set up core groups in their fields of endeavour and launch consultancy services for improving our service delivery systems. He referred to the success of this system in the Union Territory, Chandigarh by formulating and implementing programmes to quicken the process of development and strengthening social service sectors .He said that all the Development Oriented Committees are headed by professionals and bureaucrats are member secretaries. He said that parameters and goals have been set and arrangements for monitoring and validation of different projects have been instituted. He mentioned that various projects, in health, education and IT sectors, are moving ahead with this arrangement successfully in Union Territory, Chandigarh considerably meeting the needs and aspirations of our people.
Expressing his serious concern over the lack of attention being given to the environment, General Rodrigues said that we have to develop the sense of ownership and redefine our approach from ‘we’ and ‘they’ to ‘us’ in respect of creating ideal pollution free conditions in our establishments and factories. He said that we have to develop self-regulatory mechanisms and take initiatives for installing devices to check pollution to give a better future to our generations.
Mr. S.S. Channi, Principal Secretary Industries in his welcome address said that new industrial policy in the State is on anvil which is being formulated after taking into considerations the view point of all stakeholders including industrialists, working class, marketing professionals and entrepreneurs. He said that six new Boards for giving new dimension and direction to the industrial activity in the State has been set up. He said that various incentives have been given to the existing units for upgrading their entrepreneurship initiatives. He said that special focus has been given to ensure quality power, availability of raw material besides creating ideal environments for attracting industrial investment.
General Rodrigues presented awards to distinguished industrialists which included: under Micro Scale Category, first award was given to M/s Lords engineering Enterprises, Hoshiarpur, whereas M/s G.K. Manufacturing, Jalandhar and M/s Joshi Auto Industries, Jalandhar bagged second and third awards. Under Small Scale Hand Tool Category, M/s Sri Tools Industry Ludhiana bagged first prize while M/s Ambika Overseas, Jalandhar , M/s Ajay Industry, Jalandhar bagged second and third prize. Under Medium Scale Textile Industry, M/s Kudo Fabrics, Ludhiana won first prize while M/s Shramanji Fabrics Pvt. Ltd, Ludhiana, M/s Lakra Industries Limited, Ludhiana were given second and third prize.