The government had launched the MSME grievance redressal platform ‘Champions’ in May 2020. According to the recent data published by the government, MSME complaints resolution increased by 33.2% in the last 6 months. The number of complaints resolved as of 31st January 2021 was 26,693, which spiked to 35,562 as of 15th July 2021.
The Champions portal was launched as a GST grievance registration and management system for issues pertaining to MSMEs during COVID-19 like finance requirements, availability of raw materials, labour shortage, complex regulatory requirements, etc. The portal was designed with a view to creating a huge data repository about the challenges faced by MSME around marketing, exports, government payments, funding, etc. It will use artificial intelligence over a period of time to understand & measure different aspects of MSMEs in India. For example, which state’s MSMEs face credit issues, MSMEs that face a high labour shortage, etc.
The complaints filed on the portal are sent to concerned branches/bureau/departments under the MSME ministry and has to attend within 3 days. Any matter will not remain inconclusive for more than 7 days. AK Sharma, the MSME Ministry, said that the ministry’s top leadership would pro-actively take care of the unresolved complaints. MSME associations, units, employees, and aspiring entrepreneurs, among others, can use the portal to submit grievances, share suggestions, and learn more about government support for MSMEs. It also retrieves MSME complaints from the government’s Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) or any other MSME Ministry portal automatically.
According to an earlier statement by the ministry, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) were integrated into the portal last October to get social media insights related to MSME, know the pulse of the entire MSME sector without investors going to the portal, know emotions of people involved with or dependent on MSMEs in real-time, and more. “AI has started delivering the MSME Ministry social media insights relevant to MSMEs for its policy action through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Blogs, Forums, and online news that were not available to us on a holistic basis,” according to the ministry.
