Bhubaneswar, Feb 27: Odisha has been awarded first prize at national level for its outstanding performance in the field of development and promotion of MSMEs.

Principal Secretary, MSME Department Hemant Sharma received the award from Union Minister MSME Nitin Gadkari in a special event organised for National MSME Awards at Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra, New Delhi on Wednesday.

Odisha MSME Department in recent times has taken many major reforms to attract MSMEs and large industries to the state. Various schemes and policies have been formulated to suit to investors as well as the entrepreneurs.

This has yielded good result for which it has got the award. Big industries in the State such as NALCO, NTPC and SAIL have established their position in the world market. In a reformative move State Government have introduced many measures like establishing facilitation centres at district level Single Window system, incentive schemes to promote rapid growth in this sector.

The major highlights of performance of Odisha in MSME Sectors are 100.49% growth rate in disposal of cases under MSEFC, 88.65% growth rate in Capacity building and rolling out of legislations like IPR 2015, Odisha MSME Development Policy 2016 and Startup Policy 2016.