JK News Today

Jammu, January 5: Reserve Bank of India organised a Town Hall Meeting for the MSMEs entrepreneurs at Katra, District Reasi. Town Hall meets are periodically organised by RBI to create awareness of banking facilities amongst the entrepreneurs, link the unbanked entrepreneurs to the formal banking channels and to create a platform for two way communication amongst the stakeholder. The meeting at Katrawas chaired by Thomas Mathew, Regional Director, RBI, Jammu &Kashmir and Prasanna Ramaswamy G., District Development Commissioner, District Reasi, was the Chief Guest.

A K Mattu, General Manager, RBI, Bikram Raina, DGM, PNB, Shri Sudhir Gupta, Zonal Manager, J& K Bank and other senior bankers and officials from Govt. departments also participated and interacted withthe entrepreneurs. Rakesh Wazir, President Hotel and Restaurant Association, Katr are presented the Hotel Industry. More than 150 existing and prospective entrepreneurs, bankers and other district officials participated in the above meeting.

While welcoming the participants to the event, A.K. Mattu GM, RBI explained the huge potential of this sector in employment generation and contribution to the overall economic growth of the Country and informed how in the developed countries like UK, US, Germany ,France, Taiwan, Italy and Canada MSMEs sector aided employment generation and contributed to their respective GDPs ranging from more than 50% to 90%,whereas in India the position was much lower but held a great promise if promoted properly. India had a huge population of young persons but all could not be absorbed in the employment and with agriculture sector offering limited scope for employment, the answer to our unemployment issues and overall economic growth lied only in the growth of MSMEs sector, which the Govt. of India and RBI were very keen to promote and the present Town Hall event was a step in that direction.

District DevelopmentCommissioner,Reasi highlighted the importance of MSMEs in the district and sought cooperation from all the stakeholders in supporting the sector.  Earlier Shri Thomas Mathew, RD, RBI also welcomed the participants and  stressed about untapped potential which MSMEspossessed and exhorted entrepreneurs to take advantage of various facilities/schemes of the Govt. for the growth of their venturesand also be partner in the economic growth of the Country. A detailed presentation on MSMEs sector highlighting salient guidelines, regulation, incentives and other recent developments, wasmade by Smt. Abhilasha Diwakar, Manager, RBI. A brief on current policies, CGTMSE, CERSAI, etc. wasmade by Shri Satish Sharma, AGM, RBI.Subsequently the event was concluded after a question-answer session wherein the participants raised various questions which were replied to and also interacted freely with the bankers. Zonal Manager JKB and DGM PNBalso shared their views on the subject. Shri Rakesh Wazir, President Hotel and Restaurant Association appreciated RBI initiative and hoped that such events would go a long way in creating a congenial environment for the growth of this sector in the State.

 

The meeting ended with vote of thanks to the Chair.