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On the eve of International MSME Day, the global not-for-profit Wadhwani Foundation has called for empowering MSMEs with capabilities to accelerate their growth, to the struggling MSME sector due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Foundation, over the past year, has positively impacted 550 SMEs and their 5,000 employees.

MSMEs are a crucial part of the economic and social fabric of the country, and complete recovery will only be possible with a high-intensity and strategically structured support to this high-spirited sector.

Therefore, it is essential to stabilise the sector by meeting the immediate challenges of cash flows, wages, pressing creditors and perhaps more important challenges of finding where growth lies, in realising its true potential.

In these difficult and challenging times and on the eve of International MSME Day 2021, Samir Sathe, Executive Vice President, Wadhwani Advantage, says: "As the pandemic continues to trouble the world, especially the developing economies, there is a renewed appreciation of the fact that MSMEs need attention, care, nurturing and rejuvenation, failing which, the world order of business, commerce, economics and livelihoods will crumble and wither, in no time.

"The recent surge in MSME registration and incorporation of digital innovation into their businesses is an encouraging indicator of the resilience of MSMEs despite the pandemic. Wadhwani Advantage focuses on accelerating and strengthening their business fundamentals, stabilising their business in the medium-term and facilitating rapid growth in the long term.

"We empower businesses with capabilities to maximize their growth potential with the help of automated Business Discovery and Transformation Tools. We want entrepreneurs to be trained in becoming their own advisors."

The MSME sector is widely acknowledged as the growth engine of the country's economy, contributing over 30 per cent of the economy both in GDP and employment generation.

The Covid-19 pandemic had a severe untoward impact on the entire MSME sector in the country.

Under the given situation, it is necessary that there should be revival measures to support them.

The International MSME Day 2021 is a time to introspect and reflect upon the hardships bestowed upon the sector.