- Arvind Kumar Sharma has also worked in the Government of Gujarat at various positions
- MSME ministry has recently launched a dedicated portal for MSMEs in India
Arvind Kumar Sharma (IAS) has assumed charge as secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME). He held important meetings with senior officers to review the work of the ministry and discussed pressing issues especially in the light of the impact of COVID -19 pandemic.
Sharma has emphasized that MSME sector is very crucial for the society and the economy. Laying out his priorities, he has emphasized that after we have dealt with the urgent situation, we need to work on creating global champion companies from MSMEs.
Additional secretary, Prime Minister’s office
Prior to this appointment, Sharma was serving as Additional Secretary, Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). He is 1988 batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre.
Sharma has also worked in the Government of Gujarat at various positions including field and policy level and has extensive experience of handling the portfolios of regulatory and developmental administration, disaster management, corporate management, industrial/investment promotion and infrastructure development.
His appointment comes at a time when the ministry has launched a dedicated portal for MSMEs in India. The portal, as per the official statement, gives access to all schemes of Union, State and UT Governments. It has the provision for uploading ideas, innovations & researches in the sector. The portal has unique features of not only crowd sourcing of ideas, but also evaluation and rating the ideas by crowd sourcing. It can also facilitate inflow of venture capital, foreign collaboration etc.
“This portal will prove to be of great transformational significance to the MSMEs in particular and the economy in general. This is a very good beginning,” Nitin Gadkari, union minister, Ministry of Road transport & Highways and MSME, had said earlier.