The MSME Development and Manufacturing Committee of the Bengal Chamber organized the sixth edition of the annual “The Bengal Chamber Award for Excellence in Best Practices of MSMEs” with the participation of senior representatives from the Government and Industry along with the Academia on Friday, 6th December 2013 at 10.00 a.m. at Williamson Magor Hall, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The focus of the event has always been to create a benchmark for the small scale industries, especially the micro, small and medium enterprises by giving exposure to the best manufacturing and service practices adopted and implemented by their counterparts so that they could learn, adopt and implement these practices in their respective organizations, which would help them to achieve better productivity as well as quality at lesser cost.

This is an annual event of the Chamber and it is being organized to reward the MSMEs for their “Excellence in Best Practices” in spite of the severe logistical and infrastructural constraints they come across. The focus is also to give exposure to the MSMEs and extend them the opportunity of networking with the larger organizations. The event helps the large scale industries to contribute in their continuous endeavour in developing or upgrading their vendor base by inducting quality vendors for furthering growth and development of their businesses.

This year, our award programme was presided over by Dr. Alok Roy, Senior Vice President, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who commenced the session by giving a Welcome Speech. Mr. Debkumar Basu, Member, MSME Development and Manufacturing Committee and Director, Zetadel Technologies P Ltd was the Master of Ceremonies for the Inaugural Session.

The key speakers in the programme were:

• Shri K H Muniyappa, Hon’ble Minister of State Independent Charge for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India

• Commander Soumitra Bhaduri, Chief General Manager – QA, Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd (GRSE), Ministry of Defence, Government of India

• Shri S Ramakrishnan, Regional Manager, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI)

Shri K H Muniyappa spoke about the special emphasis given to the MSME sector since this is a most important segment for the development and growth of industry and the economy post globalization. The Minister observed that the small scale industries play a leading role for further industrialization and they are driven by technology, integrated business networks, cluster initiatives, etc.

The Hon’ble Minister also spoke about the initiatives taken by the Central Government, under the wings of the Ministry of MSME, Government of India, to form MSME Clusters in different parts of India with special emphasis on West Bengal. He mentioned in the forum that there are places in West Bengal like Purulia, Jhargram, Coochbehar, Howrah, East and West Midnapore, etc where the Central Government with the help of the State Government is planning to set up MSME Hubs for furthering development and growth of the MSME sector, which in turn would bring significant development in the economy.

The panel of judges who evaluated the presentations of the participating MSMEs was headed by Dr. Anjan Ghosh, Chief Judge and Vice President, Total Quality Management, Exide Industries Limited; Mr. Sunil Vats, Head – Sales & Administration, Kolkata, Tata Steel Processing And Distribution Limited; Dr Suman K Mukerjee, Principal & Dean, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Instt of Mgmt Science, Kolkata Kendra and Mr. Debkumar Basu, Director, ZETADEL Technologies P. Ltd.

The judges selected the three best case study presentations in Manufacturing Sector and one best case study presentation in Service Sector out of a series of presentations made by the participating MSMEs. Following were the MSMEs which won the Award along with the Certificate of Best Case Study Presentation.

Manufacturing Sector:

• Anmol Feeds Pvt Ltd

• Supreme & Co Pvt Ltd

• Trans Organics (India) Pvt Ltd

Service Sector:

• Indo Bell Insulations Ltd

The award programme was attended by well over 135 delegates from industry representing sectors like manufacturing, engineering, petrochemicals, chemicals, financial institutions, bankers and others. The feedback from the session was extremely positive as it was an excellent learning experience and networking forum.