Local industries are experiencing a coal crisis, which means there is insufficient power. This will affect the efficiency of enterprises since power is the primary source of energy. On last Friday, Dr Tapan Kumar Chand called on the State government to take action to resolve the coal crisis.

Dr Chand made this statement at the valedictory session of Entrepreneurship Week organized by UCCI. As the former chairman of National Aluminium Company (NALCO) and the incumbent President of Vedanta’s Odisha and Chattisgarh aluminium operations, he is also a member of the homegrown industry lobby body Utkal Chamber of Commerce & Industry (UCCI) and a member of its subsidiary bodies that monitor the well-being of local industries.

UCCI’s position on the coal crisis was also clarified. Our state government should be able to handle the problem, so we requested that they intervene. As a result of the UCCI’s stance on this issue, UCCI became more robust and more credible, Dr Chand added.

The last week was celebrated to boost up the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Odisha. The Utkal Chamber of Commerce & Industry is known as UCCI. The organization is made up of industries, institutions, and individual entrepreneurs.

In his speech, Dr Chand said that MSMEs would be the future drivers of growth, entrepreneurship and employment. A new industrial revolution is expected. In the field of technology, many innovations are taking place, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and other things. In such conditions, no big industries are likely to provide jobs shortly. The Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) will be the source of employment.

When financial incentives are provided in the form of reduced Capital Expenditure (Capex) and Operational Expenditure (Opex), the Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry4.0 will be introduced.

The level of automation will result in a massive disruption in the area of the job family, and many traditional jobs will disappear as a result. There will be no workforce on store floors. MSMEs will become crucial in this situation. MSMEs in the upcoming years will be able to communicate with each other, and condition-based maintenance will reduce downtime, said Dr Tapan Chand.

Everyone should start making MSMEs stronger by putting all their efforts into it. At the time of the raging COVID-19 pandemic, MSMEs faced unprecedented challenges. Thus, there is a high unemployment rate in the country and state. Mother industries should support SMEs in their hinterlands, he said. In his concluding remarks, the speaker explained that the growth of MSMEs would mitigate the pains of industries 4.0. The prominent sectors will become highly competitive and present goods and services of unmatched quality and precision.