Mumbai: The Bombay Industries Association (BIA) on Saturday installed Dr Rajesh Doshi, Managing Director of Diagold Creation Pvt Ltd, as its new President at its 62nd installation ceremony held at Hotel Sahara Star, signalling a renewed focus on scaling India’s MSME sector in a changing economic environment.
Outgoing President Hitesh Shah formally handed over charge in the presence of industry representatives, diplomats and government officials. The event also saw the signing of a memorandum of understanding and the unveiling of the cover page of BIA’s revived institutional publication, Entrepreneur.
Dr Doshi, a medical professional-turned-entrepreneur, outlined a functional rather than ceremonial agenda in his inaugural address. Positioning the association beyond networking, he said BIA would work towards becoming “a growth engine for entrepreneurs,” with emphasis on institutional strengthening, structured member engagement and adaptation to emerging business realities shaped by artificial intelligence, global supply chains and export opportunities.
He framed his theme for the year — Arise, Awake, Achieve — as a sequence of intent, awareness and execution, stressing that ideas without delivery would not alter outcomes for small businesses.
The economic context was underscored by Chief Guest Anish Damania, Managing Director (Group Relationships) at JM Financial Ltd and Honorary Advisor to MITRA, who presented the scale of India’s MSME sector. According to him, the country has around 7.5 crore MSMEs, 99% of which are micro enterprises, employing nearly 33 crore people. The sector contributes about 31% to GDP, 35% to manufacturing output and approximately 48% to exports.
“The nation runs on MSMEs,” Damania said, placing the sector at the centre of India’s growth narrative while highlighting the need for disciplined capital use, governance structures and technology adoption for scaling without losing control.
Drawing parallels with global economies, he noted that countries such as Japan and Germany have built strong industrial bases on MSME-led ecosystems, suggesting that India’s structural challenge lies not in scale but in productivity and organisation.
Guest of Honour Surendrakumar Tibrewala, Managing Director of Fineotex Chemical Ltd, offered an operational perspective, outlining the company’s expansion from 400 metric tonnes annual production in 2017 to 2 lakh metric tonnes currently. He attributed growth to speed of execution, investment in research and development, cost discipline and delegation — an area he identified as a persistent weakness among MSMEs.
“Delegation is where most MSMEs struggle,” Tibrewala said, adding that growth requires moving beyond owner-centric decision-making.
The installation comes at a time when India’s MSME sector is navigating multiple pressures — shifting global trade alignments, supply chain realignments under the China-plus-one strategy, policy interventions such as production-linked incentives, and the early impact of AI-driven productivity shifts.
Whether industry bodies like BIA can move beyond advocacy to measurable support for member enterprises remains an open question. The new leadership’s emphasis on structure, scale and execution will be tested against that expectation.
