Subject:
Congratulations on MSME Commissionerate — Your Vision Aligns with a Decade of Advocacy for Job Creation
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Dear Shri Uday Samant
(uday.samant@maharashtra.gov.in)*,
I am delighted to learn that Maharashtra's Cabinet has cleared the establishment of an MSME Commissionerate and that your department is extending 20% concessions on industrial plots along with tax incentives to encourage MSME investments (Hindu Business Line, June 28, 2026).
This is exactly the move I have been advocating for over a decade. Let me show you how your initiative aligns with and fulfills a long-standing vision for job creation in Maharashtra and India.
The Vision: MSME as the Foundation of India's Economy
Over the past 10+ years, I have written extensively about why MSMEs are not just "small" businesses—they are the engine of job creation, self-employment, and distributed economic growth in India.
Here's what the data shows:
| MSME Impact | Scale | My Advocacy Since |
|---|---|---|
| Number of MSMEs in India | 65 million enterprises | Foundation of Economy — Nov 2018 |
| Employment generated | 120 million persons | MSME accounts for 38% GDP, 45% exports |
| New jobs per year | 1.3 million annually | FW: Only MSME Can Create 13 Million Jobs — June 2017 |
| Youth entering workforce annually | 12 million | Insufficient job creation from public + private sectors |
| Conclusion | MSME is the ONLY path to self-employment | A New Economic Order — Startup Act 2015 — Sept 2015 |
Your establishment of a dedicated MSME Commissionerate directly addresses this: dedicated institutional support for the sector that creates more jobs than government + corporate sectors combined.
Your Initiative Reflects My Core Advocacy: REMOVING BARRIERS, NOT ADDING THEM
Over 11 years, my core message to policymakers has been consistent:
"How can we help millions of JOBLESS to set up such MICRO-BUSINESSES? By Government (Central / State / Municipal) getting out of their way!"
— Startup Portal Registration — March 2016
Your two key measures reflect this perfectly:
1. 20% Concession on Industrial Plots
This directly lowers entry barriers for MSME entrepreneurs. I advocated for this in my From Job-Seekers to Job-Creators (Sept 2015):
"How can we turn 12 million persons entering our work-force each year from being job-seekers to becoming job-creators?"
Land cost is the single biggest barrier to manufacturing MSMEs. Your 20% concession removes that friction instantly.
2. Tax Incentives
My foundational paper, A New Economic Order — Startup Act 2015, proposed:
"No Corporate Income Tax for Start-Ups for 10 years (no chance of profit in first 3 years)"
Your tax concessions follow this exact logic: remove the tax burden in the survival phase, allow entrepreneurs to reinvest.
The Larger Vision: MSME Mentoring & Knowledge Transfer
But there's more to your opportunity. Your Commissionerate can go beyond infrastructure and tax benefits. In MSME: Need Mentoring by Large Companies (July 2022), I argued:
"Whereas there can be no doubt about the Government's resolve to 'Empower MSME', **what is urgently required is for the country's large / successful Companies to take on the responsibility of:
- Mentoring of MSME
- Passing on / Transferring to MSMEs, the best business practices and documents (Manufacturing – Marketing – Selling – Funding – Sourcing etc)**"
Recommendation for your Commissionerate: Partner with Maharashtra's largest companies (L&T, Infosys, Tata, Bajaj, etc.) to mentor MSMEs through a dedicated knowledge-sharing portal. I proposed this in EmpowerMSME (April 2017):
"Can they be persuaded to share these data by uploading on a portal? — for 25 million SME to download / modify and implement in their own companies?"
L&T had developed such a portal years ago. Your Commissionerate could resurrect and scale it.
Maharashtra's Unique Position
Maharashtra is home to 62,039 registered companies (93% in 6 cities). Your Commissionerate has a unique opportunity to:
- Decentralize manufacturing beyond Mumbai/Pune to Tier 2-3 cities
- Create industry clusters (as advocated in Foundation of Economy)
- Link MSMEs to global supply chains via FW: Only MSME Can Create 13 Million Jobs logic: each MSME exporting just $40,000 per year = $1.2 trillion for 30 million MSMEs
A Closing Thought: Maharashtra Can Lead All-India MSME Transformation
In Slow and Steady Loses the Race (March 2017), I urged:
"If we want to win the 'Start-Up Race', we will need to give up on our 'Slow and Steady' approach."
Your Commissionerate's swift action proves Maharashtra is ready to move fast. Now, the question is: Can your Commissionerate become a model that other states copy?
I urge you to:
- Publicize the impact metrics: How many new MSMEs registered? How many jobs created?
- Invite mentoring partnerships with large companies
- Document best practices and share them nationally via ASSOCHAM / FICCI / CII
- Consider an MSME Export Facilitation Cell to help MSMEs tap global markets
My Gratitude
Shri Samant, your Commissionerate is not just a bureaucratic body. It is the institutional expression of a decade-long vision: that self-employment and MSMEs—not government jobs—are the true engine of India's future.
I offer my full support and would welcome the opportunity to collaborate with your office on any of the mentoring / knowledge-sharing initiatives outlined above.
Warm regards,
Hemen Parekh
Sources: My MSME Advocacy Journey (2015–2026)
| # | Blog/Email Title | Date | Core Argument |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A New Economic Order — Startup Act 2015 | Sept 2015 | Remove barriers: no tax, no licenses; enable 5M startups annually |
| 2 | Start-up Portal Registration | March 2016 | Government must "get out of the way"—no permits, simple registration |
| 3 | From Job-Seekers to Job-Creators | Sept 2015 | Transform 12M annual workforce entrants into self-employed entrepreneurs |
| 4 | Start-Ups Need Wooing? | June 2016 | Existing definitions too stringent; relax criteria to include street vendors, artisans |
| 5 | Slow and Steady Loses the Race | March 2017 | Speed matters; re-define startups to be more inclusive |
| 6 | FW: Only MSME Can Create 13 Million Jobs | June 2017 | If each MSME exports $40K/year, 30M MSMEs create 13M jobs annually |
| 7 | MSME: Need Mentoring by Large Companies | July 2022 | Large companies should mentor MSMEs; convert Private IP to National IP |
| 8 | Foundation of Economy | Nov 2018 | 65M MSMEs, 120M employed, 38% GDP, 45% exports—MSME is the base |
| 9 | EmpowerMSME | April 2017 | MSME portal for knowledge transfer from successful companies |
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