Samir Sathe, EVP, Wadhwani Advantage at Wadhwani Foundation leads the Wadhwani Advantage program in India, focused on accelerating small business revenue and job growth. He has a Master degree in consulting and coaching for change from INSEAD, France. With immense experience of 25 years in India, Asia, Middle East, Hong Kong, Singapore, UK and US, he has advised and executed 200+ engagements for domestic and multinational, small and large businesses, in a diverse set of manufacturing and service industries.
In a recent conversation with The Pioneer, Samir Sathe talks about the Role of SME’s in India. SMEs are supposed to play three critical roles in the Indian economy. These include but are not limited to; contribution to GDP, employment, and innovation. Today, they contribute to 27% GDP of the Indian economy but could contribute to 40% by 2027. The contribution to employment stands at 110 million, but is capable of employing 200 million. When it comes to Innovation, except for IT and similar services, SMEs contribute little to new products and services. 98% of the innovations and patent filings come from large organisations or start-ups. Having said this, they contribute significantly to process innovation, due to scarcity of talent and financial resources. When you compare India’s Micro Industries contribution to GDP with other countries, it is evident that India’s contribution is on the lower end of the scale. The key reason for this difference is government prioritisation of actions that would enhance the competitiveness of the nation, focus on bottom-up movement of mass entrepreneurship in early stages of the life cycle of SMEs, thrust on cluster and trade economics, favourable resource mobilisation to innovation, ease of doing business and talent upskilling.
