The Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) contribute significantly to value addition, employment generation, exports and overall growth and development of the country’s economy. In Odisha, a separate Department of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises was created in 2012 with an objective to facilitate, promote and enhance competitiveness among MSMEs in the state. Online Entrepreneur Memorandum System is a state government initiative to rejuvenate and facilitate the growth and development of the MSME sector in Odisha.

MSMED Act, 2006, states that any person who intends to establish a micro or small enterprise or a medium enterprise engaged in providing or rendering of services, or engaged in the manufacture or production of goods shall file the memorandum with District Industries Centre (DIC) of its area. Hon’ble CM, Orissa, while inaugurating the web portal of MSME Department on 1st January 2013 announced that EM-I will be made online at the earliest. Accordingly NIC, Odisha developed the web enabled “Online Entrepreneur Memorandum (EM) System” which became fully operational on 1st April, 2013.

The objectives of Online EM-I are as follows - l Encourage higher rates of EM-I registration to enable more MSMEs to become organized and eligible for benefits under various Government schemes l Make the process of filing of EM-I form easier for the applicant through anytime-anywhere registration l Real-time status tracking to make it more transparent for the applicant l Track the conversion of EM-I to EM-II

ACHIEVEMENTS l Manual procedure discontinued by the department l A total 4199 applications have been filed online till date out of which 3750 have been approved and 191 rejected.

STAKEHOLDERS l Micro, Small and Medium Entrepreneurs l 31 GM, DICs of Odisha l Directorate, MSME l Secretariat, Bhubaneswar

PROCESSES AUTOMATED Once the online form is submitted, the District Industries Centre fills all the codes in the form of the “memorandum” and issues the acknowledgement after allotting an EM Number, date and category of the unit. Before issuing the acknowledgement, the District Industries Centers ensures that the form is complete in all aspects and is signed along with an undertaking, which is a part of the form of Entrepreneurs Memorandum. This is issued on the same day, if the form of Memorandum is submitted online or in person. In case of receipt of the form of memorandum by post, an acknowledgement is issued within five days.

District Industries Centers forward a copy of the EM with EM number allotted to the Small Industries Service Institutes of their jurisdiction and to the Joint Development Commissioner (MSME Pol.) in the Office of the Development Commissioner (Small Scale Industries).

Steps have been initiated to make EM-II online from 1st July, 2013, and the status will indicate how many EM-I have been converted to EM-II.

MAJOR MODULES Registration: Entrepreneur who desires to apply EM-I has to visit http://msmeodisha.gov.in and register online. During the process, an identity proof (Voter ID/Passport/PAN Card etc.) has to be uploaded. The user id and initial password will be created and sent through the e-mail as well as SMS.

EM-I Filing: The user has to fill up the form online and upload the relevant documents i.e partnership affidavit, signature of applicant etc. Once he fills up the application, a reference number is generated. The entrepreneur can take a final printout of the application submitted.

Approval of EM-I: This module is meant for GM, DICs, where they can view the applications submitted and verify the documents. If any of the documents found to be incorrect then they can send it back to the entrepreneur. Once all the documents are submitted correctly, EM-I is approved by GM, DIC online.

FEATURES l The application is role-based thus when one officer proceeds on leave he can delegate the role to other officer so that he can use the system for approving EM-I. l Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) is integrated for authentication. DSC has been issued to all the 31 DIC officials to enable them approve EM-I with Digital Signature. l The holiday module captures the government holidays and local holidays so that during approval of EM-I, it checks for the same.

CAPACITY BUILDING INITIATIVES l Sensitization workshops were conducted twice for 31 GM, DIC at NIC, Bhubaneswar. l Training sessions were organized for all DIOs / ADIOs, NIC through VC. l Workshops at Balasore, Bhubaneswar, Sonepur, Sambalpur, Rourkela, Dhenkanal, Cuttack, Ganjam and Koraput were conducted to create awareness among entrepreneurs, GM, DIC and NIC officials about the online application. l A help desk has been established to handle entrepreneurs queries directed towards GM, DIC/NIC or Directorate. If a query is not relevant to the concerned officials then it is forwarded to the competent authority. Selected queries have been posted as FAQ by the Directorate.

Hon'ble C.M, Odisha inaugurating the Portal (Image description: Hon'ble C.M, Odisha inaugurating the Portal)