Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, June 24: Small Scale Industry Minister Venkataramanappa inaugurated Karnataka Small Scale Industries Associaton (KASSIA) Udyog Bhavan on Magadi Chord Road in Bangalore on June 23 evening. KASSIA president MCR Shetty, minister Murgesh Nirani, small scale industries director Rajkumar Kathri were present.
Yakshagana artistes gave their performance during the occasion.
The small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been playing a crucial role in the country's economic growth. However, they have not been able to keep pace with the high growth curve of the economy due to lack of infrastructure.
When it comes to dealing with their international counterparts, SSIs find it difficult to organise their business meetings at five-star hotels as it costs them a lot of money.
Seeing this huge bottleneck affecting the small businesses, the Bangalore-based Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (Kassia), an apex body for SMEs in the state, has come out with a novel project of setting up a world class trade centre — Kassia Udyog Bhavan — which will act as a one-stop location for SSIs to organise their business meetings with their business partners. It will also provide them a display centre for them to showcase their products.
The Rs 6.5-crore Kassia Udyog Bhavan (KUB), spread over five floors 10,000 sq ft each, is located at Vijayanagar in the eastern part of Bangalore city.
The new facility is expected to become a one-stop center for a variety of promotional and developmental iniatives and exercises. KUB is built with a Rs 3.5-crore term loan from Canara Bank and state government grant of Rs 1 crore.
The remaining amount is contributed by the members.
MCR Shetty, president, Kassia says, "Through the Bhavan, we will address the issues concerned with SMEs in an organised way. It will help us to promote and nurture the growth of small scale industries in Karnataka. It is not just a structure, but a turning point in our growth."
He said Kassia had sought financial assistance of up to Rs 3 crore from the Centre under the Assistance to States for Developing Export Infrastructure and Allied Activities (ASIDE) scheme towards setting up the product display center at KUB.
KUB has facilities like a common display center, research center, export-import cell, knowledge center, auditorium with 500 seating capacity and a small business school. The display center will serve as an ideal exhibition space for various industries across the state to organise and exhibit their products.
At a time, about 300 products made by SMEs can be displayed here. It will be a one-stop familiarisation point for the domestic and foreign agencies to explore diverse business avenues and technology.
The research center will provide service to the small scale industries in terms of techno-economic research, policy making assistance and various macro and micro services. It will accommodate a sub-contract exchange center, which will focus on the vendor rating, development and various domestic and international outsourcing facilitations.
The center will associate itself with reputed national and international documentation agencies like the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).
The export-import cell will accommodate facilities for exporters and importers, counselling centers, quality awareness and entrepreneur development in overseas business.
The knowledge center will be equipped with various official and research reports, case studies and different research works and records on Indian and foreign reports. Kassia is also looking to set up an updated reference hub for the global business development for entrepreneurs from the SSI sector. It will also have an e-library, broadband connectivity and an IT assistance centre.
The SSI units in the state will also be provided with other facilities like a symposium hall and a boardroom with video conferencing facilities.