I Was an Entrepreneur Too”: VP Radhakrishnan’s Powerful Message to India’s MSME Community

June 28, 2026 MSME Sampark MSME Digital, Msme News 0

At a gathering of policymakers, industry leaders, and small business owners at Dr. Ambedkar International Centre in New Delhi, Vice President of India Shri C. P. Radhakrishnan did something most senior government officials don’t do at ceremonial events. He did not just deliver a speech. He told his own story.

From Coir Board to Rashtrapati Bhavan

Presiding over MSME Day 2026 – Udyami Bharat on June 27, 2026, the Vice President opened with a personal revelation that immediately set a different tone for the event.
“I convey my best wishes to the entrepreneurs and all the stakeholders shaping the MSME sector,” he said. “I started my career in the MSME sector.”
Radhakrishnan disclosed that he began his professional life with the Coir Board — a government body that supports the coir industry, one of India’s oldest cottage and small-scale industries. He was not just a bureaucrat overseeing the sector. He described himself as someone who had once been an entrepreneur.
For the lakhs of small business owners watching or reading about the event, this was not a small detail. India’s second-highest constitutional office was held by someone who had walked the same path they walk every day.

The One Line Every Entrepreneur Needed to Hear

The centrepiece of his address was direct and unambiguous:
If you are determined, nothing can stop you. You will definitely achieve your goals.
In a country where MSME entrepreneurs routinely battle delayed payments, limited credit access, regulatory complexity, and market competition from large corporations, this was not empty motivation. Coming from someone who had personally navigated the MSME world before rising to the highest levels of government, it carried a different weight.

He went further, placing India’s small businesses in a global context:

Every economy in the world has grown through the contributions of the MSME sector.
This is factually accurate. From Germany’s Mittelstand to Japan’s SME backbone to the United States’ small business ecosystem — no major economy has industrialised without its small business sector driving employment, innovation, and supply chain depth. India’s 6.3 crore MSMEs, contributing around 30% of GDP and nearly half of all exports, are no different.

A Congratulation That Meant Something

Radhakrishnan closed his address by congratulating the Ministry of MSME, NSIC, KVIC, and all stakeholders contributing to the sector on the occasion of MSME Day.
“I congratulate Ministry of MSME, NSIC, KVIC and all the stakeholders contributing in the MSME sector, on the occasion of MSME Day,” he said.
But the congratulation felt earned, not ceremonial — because it came after he had placed himself among them.

Why This Matters

India has had many politicians and bureaucrats speak about the importance of the MSME sector. What is rarer is a leader at the level of Vice President who can say, with credibility: I know this world from the inside.
Radhakrishnan’s speech at MSME Day 2026 was short. It did not announce any new scheme or portal. But it sent a message that is harder to manufacture than a policy announcement — that the people running India’s government understand, at a personal level, what it means to build something from scratch.
For an MSME entrepreneur sitting in a small workshop in Coimbatore, a textile unit in Surat, or a food processing unit in Ludhiana — that is not nothing.

The Event Context

MSME Day 2026 was organised by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises at Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi. The event also saw the launch of six new digital platforms, multilingual access across MSME portals in all 22 Scheduled Indian languages, the upgrading of NSIC to a Schedule ‘A’ CPSE, and new product launches by KVIC.
Union Minister Shri Jitan Ram Manjhi and Minister of State Sushri Shobha Karandlaje were also present, along with senior officials, industry leaders, and women entrepreneurs from across India.

Related Articles

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*