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New Delhi, Nov 1 (KNN) Prof. Bibek Debroy, Chairman of Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, passed away on the morning of November 1, 2024, in New Delhi, following Diwali night.
Debroy has been a polymath-a distinguished economist, scholar of law, history, and Indian mythology.
The MSME community of India has lost a friend of the tallest stature. He was perhaps the only economist and legal expert who empathised with MSME issues that no one cared about before and made interventions for profound impact.
With the Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME), Prof. Debroy picked up the issue of an entrepreneur’s life after failure in India.
Prof. Debroy picked Dr. Laveesh Bhandari to produce a seminal work ‘Small Scale Industries in India: Large Scale Exit Problems’ in 2004. The book, for the first time, brought to light the plight of failed small entrepreneurs in India.
The study posited that the insolvency and bankruptcy processes in India were completely broken, and thousands of entrepreneurs were sent to imprisonment for want of modern insolvency laws. The book created an uproar.
After a series of brainstorming sessions with stakeholders, Prof. Debroy and FISME engaged India’s top legal firm and produced the first draft for Insolvency and Bankruptcy Law for MSMEs. Following several years of iteration and amendments, the draft became instrumental eventually to evolve into the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code in India.
Prof. Debroy also collaborated with FISME in a national awareness campaign on WTO from 1999-2001 and lectured in scores of joint programs in major industrial clusters in India.
Through his eloquence, knowledge, and network, FISME has been able to turn around an inward-looking sector that flourished under protection to brace for openness and growth post liberalisation. The campaign convinced the MSME sector why the continuation of Reservation Policy for SSIs would hurt themselves after the removal of quantitative restrictions (QRs) on imports.
He played a key role in building capacities of MSME associations on trade matters and facilitated the nomination of FISME to be a national partner for a large multilateral project ‘Strategies & Preparedness for Trade and Globalisation in India’ in 2005-06. The project undertook a capacity building program of MSME associations and institutions over a five-year period.
Not only that, he readily agreed to chair the Advisory Council for Knowledge and News Network (KNN), a news agency focusing on MSMEs, while it was being set up. The KNN eventually evolved as a powerful information network for MSMEs.
Since he became Chairman of the PM-Economic Advisory Council, he kept channels open to MSMEs and bounced major policy reform proposals with MSMEs on their likely fallout.
The depth and spread of his knowledge in multiple domains and his vast network of scholars enriched MSME discourse and created outcomes of far-reaching consequences.
FISME and MSME communities mourn the loss of a visionary leader whose contributions to national causes will be remembered with deep gratitude.
(KNN Bureau)
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