Punjab Government on Wednesday announced the ‘Punjab State MSME Awards’ to felicitate the MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises), which have registered tremendous business growth and displayed excellence in product quality.
“The initiative has been taken in line with the vision to recognize and promote the visionary spirit of the entrepreneurs of Punjab,” said the state Industries and Commerce Minister Sunder Sham Arora.
He said that all the eligible units can submit their online applications till October 31, 2019, by 5 pm on the Punjab Bureau of Investment Promotion (Invest Punjab) portal— h ttp://investpunjab.gov.in/static/msmeawards.
The Minister said that the applications would be evaluated on the growth rate demonstrated by the unit (in areas such as investments in plant and machinery, direct employment, annual turnover or sales, direct exports), and product quality (evaluated through ZED certification, credit ratings, quality certifications).
The holistic application also gives due credit to MSMEs adopting energy saving measures, focusing on employee welfare measures and promoting women in workforce participation. The detailed evaluation guidelines and instructions for application submission are available on the website, he added.
Seeking online applications for the Punjab State MSME Awards under Industrial and Business Development Policy (IBDP) 2017, the Minister said that these are open to all the Punjab-based MSMEs operating in the agro and food processing, automobiles and auto parts, textiles, engineering, pharmaceuticals, IT and electronics, sports, hand tools, and leather industry.
The Minister also informed that under this award scheme, the winning MSMEs would receive a cash prize of Rs one lakh each and a Certificate of Appreciation. The winners will be felicitated during the ‘Progressive Punjab Investors’ Summit being organized by the Government of Punjab at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Mohali campus during December 5-6, 2019.
In total, the Government envisions the distribution of 18 awards, equally split across all the above nine industry sectors. Two awards will be given in each of the sectors — one to the Micro or Small Enterprises and one to the Medium Enterprises.
