Foreword

Dear Readers,

There appears to be an upsurge of interest and initiatives in the development of SME clusters in India. More and more agencies, both at the national and regional levels, are designing their interventions and taking steps to prepare their field functionaries for the new responsibility. The investment made by UNIDO in developing institutional capacity for conducting training programmes for field functionaries is yielding good results. More than 200 persons belonging to different agencies and institutions have been through a rigorous training programme for cluster development agents since the year 2000, and several of them are actively engaged at the cluster level.

Perhaps you would agree, that mutual learning has become a ‘mantra’ for development practitioners. Tools for speeding up the process of development are often picked up from sharing of experiences. With several players across the globe in the realm of SME cluster development we seek to put the reader in touch with thoughts and ideas at the macro and micro level along with providing a glimpse into the cluster level happenings.

In this issue the spotlight is on Monitoring and Evaluation, a topic that concerns all, be they the implementing agencies, the donors, stakeholders or the intended beneficiaries. The thematic write-up is a result of the recently held Learnshop in New Delhi on the 27^th - 28^th May 2003 in which more than 20 institutions connected with SME cluster development in India participated. Your views and suggestions on the newsletter are very welcome.

Anita Das
Editor

Special Message

I have read the first edition of the Cluster e-News with interest. This e-newsletter can become an important link for different institutions and agencies engaged with the challenge of developing industrial and artisan clusters in a country like India, where it is estimated that there are over 350 SSI and 2000 artisan clusters. There is news of many more state governments, institutions and NGOs designing initiatives for strengthening existing clusters. I would also like to see more and more cluster institutions like, industry associations to adopt a development agenda for themselves, like for instance the Tirupur Exporters Association who have taken the lead in steering their cluster to a high growth trajectory, or the Mahrattha Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, who have successfully set up for themselves a modern testing laboratory.

Let us take a cue from the success story of others.

Suresh Chandra

Additional Secretary and Development
Commissioner (SSI)
Government of India