Laghu Udyog Bharati’s MSME Adhiveshan in GoaLaghu Udyog Bharati’s MSME Adhiveshan in Goa

In November 2024, Laghu Udyog Bharati’s Goa chapter organised MSME Adhiveshan 2.0 at the Amazing Goa Summit and Expo. Laghu Udyog Bharati has been a registered all-India organisation of micro, small and medium industries since 1991; the Goa chapter, installed under the leadership of Rajkumar Kamat in 2023, now counts more than a hundred members.

Liquidity is profit

The keynote speaker, chartered accountant Maheshwar Marathe, spoke on the new era of incentives for MSMEs. He briefed the hall on the sector’s main challenges and pointed to liquidity as the persistent one, underlining that recent government initiatives have mostly resolved it. What remains, he said, is awareness among MSMEs, adoption, and implementation.

The government is also promoting green technology and a circular economy through recycling, and is incentivising investments made by MSMEs through upfront subsidies, interest subvention and credit guarantees. Together these account for the new-era incentives for the sector.

Waste to wealth

The second keynote, from Abhay P. Fulke, senior scientist at CSIR, Mumbai, carried the title “Waste to Wealth: R&D Innovation for Transforming India’s Bioeconomy”. India, he said, stands tall not only as a consumer of global technology but as a leader in developing solutions to major environmental problems, with a stream of government initiatives bridging laboratory research and commercial-scale application.

Fulke has pioneered a transformative bio-reactor technology that tackles two pressing challenges at once: plastic pollution and the need for renewable energy. The bacterium Pseudomonas mendocina ABF786 biodegrades plastic while simultaneously producing biodiesel. The carbon dioxide released during the breakdown is captured and used to cultivate microalgae, which is converted into microalgal biodiesel in turn; another marine bacterium turns plastic into biocalcite.

Efficiency rises further with a continuous reactor, larger volumes of starting material and replenished nutrients. The innovation aligns with the national circular-economy push on plastic reduction, providing renewable energy and sustainable replacements for petroleum-based fuels, and reflects the shift from chemical-based industries to bio-based solutions.

The panel and the prize-winners

A panel discussion on the opportunities and challenges facing MSMEs in Goa, which I moderated, brought together Pravimal Abhishek IAS (managing director, GIDC), Assocham Goa chairman Manguirish Raikar, GSIA president Aniruddh Dempo, P. P. Kulkani (assistant director, MSME DFO Goa) and LUB executive council member Rahul Parab. The discussion ranged across central and state initiatives and the sector’s pressing problems: access to easy finance, cash flow, adoption of ESG and new digital technologies, and recruiting skilled labour in Goa.

A vendor development programme followed, led by the heads of public sector units from NBCC, Mormugao Port Trust, Goa Shipyard and ONGC.

A change of guard

The Adhiveshan also marked a change in the leadership of Laghu Udyog Bharati’s Goa chapter: Rajkumar Kamat handed over the presidency to me for the 2025–27 term. Mudit Agarwal takes charge as general secretary, with Jayesh Raikar as vice president, Vibhor Keny as treasurer and Rahul Parob as joint secretary.

The event was attended by Industries Minister Mauvin Godinho along with former Union Minister Suresh Prabhu, who complimented the chapter for organising the programme and driving towards a future filled with innovation, growth, and prosperity for Goa’s business community.