The time for MSMEs to access capital is shortening, thanks to the various central and state schemes, says M Ponnuswami, Co-Chairman CII National Task Force for MSMEs. 

Speaking at the graduation day ceremony at the SASTRA Deemed University on Saturday, Ponnuswami, who is also the Chairman and Managing Director, Pon Pure Chemicals Ltd, encouraged young graduates to start small businesses, because the business and regulatory environment is conducive for MSMEs. 

In this context, Ponnuswami noted that half of the services that the government of India procures through the Goverment e-Marketplace (GEM) portal, are served by MSMEs. He also pointed out that the Credit Guarantee Scheme (CGS), under which a government body stands guarantee to loans taken by MSMEs to minimise the risk to the lender and thereby bring the cost of borrowing down, is very successful. Around ₹800 crore are disbursed per day on an average through the CGS scheme. 

Speaking on the occasion, Siva Ganesan, Global Head of AI and Cloud business, TCS, recalled the evolutionary journey of the software services industry and noted how the industry is today disrupted by generative AI and Quantum Computing. Encouraging the graduates to develop new skillset on Large Language Level models, Data Sciences, IoT, etc. Siva Ganesan warned them of technology refresh rates which are getting faster than before. The need to identify opportunities in problems and not problems in opportunities were messages delivered by both the speakers of the graduation day at SASTRA.  

Dr S Vaidhyasubramaniam Vice-Chancellor of SASTRA welcomed the gathering. 

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