National Task
Accountability, Transparency, Responsiveness
Shree A K Sharma National Task In Prime Minister's Office:
- After a historic win in 2014, Shree Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India.
- I was asked to move to Delhi and joined in Prime Minister's Office as Joint Secretary.
- Later I was promoted as Additional Secretary and continued there.
- Thus, between June 2014 & April 2020, I served as Joint/Additional Secretary to the Prime Minister of India.
- In PMO, I was responsible for looking after Ministries like Power, MNRE, Coal, Mines, Road & Transport, Industry, Railways, Shipping, Environment & Forests and initiatives like PRAGATI.
- I was also part of the teams managing and controlling the Covid-19 pandemic.
- While in the PM office, we were particularly focused on creating conditions for quick progress and prosperity of the country. Investment promotion from domestic as well as foreign sources was an important part of this task.
- This was done with very focused actions on various issues including Infrastructure Development & Ease of Doing Business.
- Simultaneously handholding mechanisms like Invest India were rejuvenated, restructured & strengthened.
- India achieved Global Leadership on Climate Change: With our PM Narendra Modi’s effective and innovative approach and sincere work based on the Indian ethos of caring for the Nature, and focus of renewable energy, India is on the center stage of the global discussion on this topic and in fact leader of the developing world. We should be proud of it! ‘धन्यास्तु ते भारत भूमि भागे’
As Secretary, MSME, GOI:
Micro, small and Medium Enterprises popularly called as MSMEs have been the backbone of Indian economy. However, in the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic, the MSME sector was badly hit.
Our Hon. Prime Minister was quick to recognize the role of MSMEs in building the Nation. That is why MSMEs formed a very prominent part of the announcements made under the Atmanirbhar Bharat package, aimed at reviving the economy post Covid.
During this crisis only, since 30th April 2020, I took over as Secretary, MSME. I made the MSME Ministry to be proactive in helping the small units and businesses of India realize their true potential. Our work has been on four fronts: Handholding, Finance, Technology & Marketing support.
- Fast Tracked Grievance Redressal: Resolve the problems of MSMEs including those related to finance, raw materials, labor, regulatory permissions etc. particularly in light of the post Covid scenario.
- To help them capture new opportunities: Encourage manufacturing of medical equipment and accessories like PPEs, masks, etc. and enable their supply to National and International markets.
- To identify and encourage disruptors: Unleash the potential of resilient MSMEs and enable them to become national and international champions.
In particular:
- We gave effective response to Prime Minister’s call of Atmanirbhar Bharat & Make in India and attempted to convert this adversity into an opportunity.
- We took extraordinary initiatives including special funds to its Technology Centers (TCs) to design products useful in fighting the covid pandemic.
- This includes pumps for sanitizers, masks, eye shields, etc. These designs were given to MSMEs for their commercial production.
- Steps taken by Ministry of MSME resulted in local production and lowering the cost of covid related medical items and auxiliaries including hand sanitizers.
- Measures by Ministry of MSME also led to reduction in imports and increase in export of several covid related medical items and auxiliaries.
Now, India is Export Ready on most of these items.
Not only on export side, on domestic side also, we had launched an aggressive and innovative social media campaign before the Diwali festival of 2020 to promote local products made by our artisans, small entrepreneurs and MSMEs.
We launched the campaign with the brand of “उजाले इन उम्मीदों के” with the purpose and hash tag of #msmechampions and it was run over a month with videos and messages of around a dozen local products and services made by small artisans. I myself directed and monitored the campaign and wrote its content as well. It was a huge success and became very popular. It has also led to increase in the sale of local products.
With my limited experience, I can also say that our MSME sector has the potential to make India the ‘Factory of the World’