New Delhi, February 3 (MExN): The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Arun Jaitley, on February 3, launched CriSidEx, India’s first sentiment index for micro and small enterprises ( MSEs) developed jointly by CRISIL & SIDBI. CriSidEx is a composite index based on a diffusion index of 8 parameters and measures MSE business sentiment on a scale of 0 (extremely negative ) to 200 ( extremely positive) . The parametric feedback was captured through a survey of 1100 MSEs in November –December, a PIB release said. CriSidEx will have 2 indices , one for the ‘survey quarter’ and another for the ‘next quarter’ once a trend emerges after few rounds of the survey , providing independent time series data. The crucial benefit of CriSidEx is that its readings will flag potential headwinds and changes in production cycles and thus help improve market efficiencies. And by capturing the sentiment of exporters and importers , it will also offer actionable indicators on foreign trade, it added. During the launch, the Finance Minister noted that the health of MSME sector is extremely vital to the economy and with the number of steps taken by the government in the past 2 years, there is increased integration of MSME sector into formal economy. Considering the MSME sector as the backbone of the economy Jaitley said, “This is one sector where people not only exhibit their entrepreneurial skills, become part of large value chains but also become job creators in the process. And that is the reason why a bulk of the jobs in manufacturing, trading have been created in this particular sector” Having gone through the series of very major structural reforms in the last 2 years, this is also now phase for consolidation as far as economy is concerned. And this phase of consolidation will also be led by this MSME Sector, the Minister emphasized. S C Garg, Secretary Department of Economic Affairs, Rajiv Kumar, Secretary of Department of Financial Services Arun Kumar Panda, Secretary MSME, Mohammad Mustafa, Chairman and Managing Director SIDBI and Ashu Suyash Managing Director & CEO, CRISIL Ltd also spoke on the occasion and highlighted the importance of this CriSidEx at this juncture for the MSME sector, the PIB release said.
