 is an Apex body of Micro, Small & Medium Scale Industries of Uttarakhand.){kind=link}
When did you elect as a President of the Industries Association of Uttarakhand and how was your journey?
I introduce myself as Pankaj Gupta, President of Industries Association of Uttarakhand (IAU). I was elected as the Founder President of the Association since then have been continuously unanimously elected as President till date. The association came into being along with the State of Uttarakhand and from being Zero Industry State today the growth has been Phenomenal with more than 58 thousand MSME Entrepreneurs and Plus 300 Large Industries with Investment of more than 40 thousand Crores employing more than 6 Lakhs people.
What are the major activities performed under your association for Small Scale Industries?
During my tenure as President of Industries Association of Uttarakhand, we drafted the first State Industrial Policy in the year 2001 and since then we have actively played role of Policy Advocacy whether it related to Industrial Policy, IT Policy, Biotech Policy, Food Processing Policy, to name a few. As Association we have interacted with the State and the Central Government at the time of GST and have also raised the issues concerning the MSMEs at the State and National Level. At the National Level we have given various suggestions during meeting in the Reserve Bank of India, for Flow of Credit to MSMEs, Environmental Clearances, Purchase Preference and others. One of the major achievement of the association have been setting up of MSME Solution Centre a Platform to provide mentioning support to MSMEs by retired experts at no cost or at very little cost. We have worked hard towards Setting up Institutional Mechanism to strengthen Industry Institute Platform. We are constantly working with the State Government for improving Skills of local people thus meeting the industry demand. We have also initiated setting up of Entrepreneurship Development Cell in two Universities.
Can you explain future proposed projects of your association towards Small Scale Industries?
The Association is presently working on Development of Micro & Small Enterprises in the Hilly Regions of the State. In order to carry out detailed survey, association is carrying out SWOT Analysis of each district of State of Uttarakhand wherein we are trying to assess the strengths of each districts and based on these strengths. We are going to develop opportunities in the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises.
Presently, we are in the process of developing projects based on Pooja Samagiri, Souvenir, Drift Wood, Precast Building Materials and others.
How many members are there in your Industries Association of Uttarakhand and which are the departments comes under your authority.
There are about 800 members and as President all departments come under me whether it relates to Policy Advocacy, Industrial development, Technology Up gradation, Innovation, Skill Development, Labour, Environment, Credit & Banking, Taxation, Power, Grievance Redressal, CSR, Entrepreneurship Development, Start-ups, Information Technology, Hospitality, Tourism, Market Development support, etc.
What are the recent activities undertaken by the Industries Association of Uttarakhand?
Participation in Investor Summit, Skill Development, Industry Institute Partnership, Policy Advocacy, and Credit related suggestions, etc.
When did you start your journey as an entrepreneur and what are the key challenges you have faced?
Personally I started my journey as an entrepreneur in the year 1986 and since then and today there has been a seek change in the Eco system for entrepreneurs when I started my journey it was very difficult to get finance, there was no Ease of Doing Business and getting licences approvals and sanctioned use to take too much time which today has reduced drastically. The technology has also improved which at that time was not there. Doing Business and Market products through E-Platform has also facilitated growth of business, which used to be a challenge at that time. There has been improvement logistically where as they use to be too much time taken during those times.
When did you start your Satya Industries? And what are the challenges you have been faced?
I started my Satya Industries in the year 1987 and had faced the same challenges have as detailed above. One of the key challenges which we faced was realization of payments in time, This has now improve because of facilitation council being in place. The offer challenge we faced was tremendous Inspector Raj which now has drastically reduced.
As an entrepreneur, how do you market your business and which tactics have been most successful?
As an entrepreneur we have always relied on direct marketing and one to one contact with our customers. This is helped not only in getting constant feedback but has one a period of time in improving and up grading our products as per the customer requirement. This is one key reason that with god grace we have sustained and retained our customers for more than 25 years with their faith and trust in us. Quite recently we are also looking at E-Commerce platform and a working with Amazon to sell our products electronically.