The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Government of India (GoI) has adopted the cluster

development approach as a key strategy for enhancing the productivity and competitiveness as well as capacity building of Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) and their collectives in the country. Clustering of units also enables providers of various services to them, including banks and credit agencies, to provide their services more economically, thus reducing costs and improving the availability of services for these enterprises.
Objectives of the Scheme:

i. To support the sustainability and growth of MSEs by addressing common issues such as improvement of technology, skills and quality, market access, access to capital, etc. ii. To build capacity of MSEs for common supportive action through formation of self help groups, consortia, upgradation of associations, etc. iii. To create/upgrade infrastructural facilities in the new/existing industrial areas/ clusters of MSEs. iv. To set up common facility centres (for testing, training centre, raw material depot, effluent treatment, complementing production processes, etc).

Scope of the scheme: Diagnostic Study Resourcing of Technology Facilitating the transfer of technology from producer to end user. Setting up of Common Facility Centres(CFCs). R & D needs Organising workshops, Seminars, Training and Study visits for quicker diffusion of technology across the cluster of small enterprises.

Infrastructure Development for facilities like power distribution network, water, telecommunication, drainage and pollution control facilities, roads, banks, raw materials, storage and marketing outlets, common service facilities and technological backup services for MSEs in the new/ existing industrial estates/areas.
Activity Diagnostic study Soft Interventions Setting up of CFC Implementing Agency Offices of the Ministry of MSME Offices of State Governments National and international institutions engaged in development of the MSE sector. Any other institution/agency approved by the Ministry of MSME State/UT Governments through an appropriate state government agency with a good track record in

Infrastructure Development projects

implementing such projects.

Cost of Project and Govt of India Assistance:

Diagnostic Study - Maximum cost Rs. 2.50 lakhs. Soft interventions - Maximum cost of project Rs. 25.00 lakh, with GoI contribution of 75% (90% for Special Category States and for clusters with more than 50% women/micro/village/SC/ST units). Hard interventions i.e setting up of CFCs maximum eligible project cost of Rs. 15.00 crore with GoI contribution of 70% (90% for Special Category States and for clusters with more than 50% women/micro/village/SC/ST units) . Infrastructure Development in the new/ existing industrial estates/areas. Maximum eligible project cost Rs.10.00 crore, with GoI contribution of 60% (80% for Special Category States and for clusters with more than 50% women/micro/SC/ST units)
How to approach :

Proposals for consideration under MSE-CDP can be sent through State Govts or their autonomous bodies or field institutes of Ministry of MSME ie. MSME-DIs. The proposals are approved by the Steering Committee of the MSE-CDP.
Cluster development (or cluster initiative or Economic Clustering) is the economic development of business clusters. The cluster concept has rapidly attracted attention from governments, consultants, and academics since it was first proposed in 1990 by Michael Porter. Many governments and industry organizations across the globe have turned to this concept in recent years as a means to stimulate urban and regional economic growth.

According to the dictionary, an entrepreneur is someone who "organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business."

Before we can talk about who is an entrepreneur, we first need to understand what entrepreneurship is. Most older textbooks talk about the three production factors: land, capital and labor. Now, these don't always mean what we think they do. Land is more than just the real estate a business builds its factory or offices on. In economic terms, land is all the natural resources used in an enterprise, so this includes the ores and minerals mined from the ground and the native plants and animals. It does not include the manmade or organized resources such as an orchard or a herd of cattle. These are examples of the second factor of production: capital. Even though most people think of money as capital, it's really the least important form of capital. In economic terms, capital is the human creations that produce wealth, such as a car used as a taxi, an oven used to bake food for sale, a furnace used to make steel, as well as the interest that money can earn.

The third factor is labor. This refers to all human endeavors that produce wealth, both physical and mental. Some people believe that it is the sole source of wealth, that labor alone creates value. Others believe that land is the only factor that creates wealth. Still others believe that capital is the key to wealth. But land, labor and capital have always been around, though widely unused or misused. What, then, has made these three factors of production work together to create wealth and improve people's lives? The answer is the fourth factor of production: entrepreneurship. This is the ability to see what others who came before missed, to make connections between things that others had not, to get all three other factors to work together to create that which had not existed before. It is this insight, this creativity, that makes the other three factors productive. Now, who is an entrepreneur? One example was a young man who was born in Bavaria in 1829 and emigrated in 1847 with his family to New York City, where his older brother opened a dry goods store (a store selling clothes, cloth, shoes, hats, almost anything but food). In 1853, he became a U.S. citizen and sailed to San Francisco to open a branch of his brother's store and become a supplier to the increasing number of miners following the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill. He was a good businessman and his store thrived. He was so trustworthy and successful that one of his customers, Jacob Davis of Reno, Nevada, came to him with an idea. Davis was a tailor, and his customers complained that their pants started to come apart in the same places over and over, the pockets and seams. He had developed a way to rivet these stress points and used a strong fabric often used for work clothes, serge. He thought it was a good idea but lacked the $68 it took to file a patent. The San Francisco merchant saw the possibilities and became Davis' partner, and their patent was granted on May 20, 1873. The merchant had been born Loeb Strauss, but when he became a citizen in 1853, he changed it to Levi. Similarly, the pants he made were originally called "waist overalls," and it was not until about 1960 that they were popularly called jeans. Even though much of the company's early history was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco Fire, May 20 is still celebrated by the company as the birthday of blue jeans. Often the entrepreneur is not the person or persons who actually create the new good or service. Rather, he or she is the one who has the vision of how that idea can be turned into reality for the benefit of everyone. For example, Oliver Winchester was a successful shirt maker, but he bought the patents for the Henry lever-action repeating rifle. His faith in this invention, along with his efforts in marketing it, made it the most widely known rifle of its day and earned it the nickname of "The Gun That Won the West."

Does this mean that entrepreneurs aren't creative? Not at all! Quite the opposite, but theirs is a different kind of creativity. Often an inventor, an artist, a composer, a writer will know his or her area of interest but not know how to make others aware of their creations. The entrepreneur's creativity finds ways for the ideas to enter the marketplace and be of benefit to all of society. Incidentally, entrepreneurs also reward those who came up with the new ideas in the first place, which encourages them to make more and better creations. People are much more likely to be creative and productive when they are promised a reward than when they are threatened with punishment if they don't create. This promise of a reward is called incentive, and incentives are possible only when there is profit. The entrepreneur makes sure this situation happens, because when the others profit, so does the entrepreneur. He or she is no different from other members of society: The entrepreneur wants a comfortable life, and he or she realizes that the best way to do this is to get the cooperation of others. That is achieved by appealing to what motivates others, because people tend to do what's in their best interest. In a free market, no one can be forced to do anything against their interest, so the entrepreneur must motivate and organize for everyone's benefit.