Scheme for Awards to MSMEs (Gujarat)

What is the Gujarat Scheme for Awards to MSMEs?

Scheme for Awards to MSMEs is a recognition scheme of the Industries and Mines Department, Government of Gujarat, notified through Government Resolution No. SSI/102020/332326/Ch dated 1 September 2020 under the Gujarat Industrial Policy 2020. The scheme gives public recognition and a cash award to micro, small and medium enterprises in Gujarat for outstanding performance in productivity, quality, employment, innovation and product development.

Each winner receives Rs 2 lakh in cash, a trophy and an appreciation letter. The MSME Commissionerate, Udyog Bhavan, Gandhinagar, administers the scheme, and a State Level supported Committee chaired by the Commissioner MSME sanctions the awards.

The resolution states an operative period of five years from 7 August 2020, the date the Gujarat Industrial Policy 2020 was announced, to 6 August 2025. The Industries Commissionerate has continued to publish MSME award forms, checklists and a General Manager's certificate format for 2025 on ic.gujarat.gov.in, so the annual award cycle has continued past the original window; applicants should check the current year's advertisement for the exact closing date rather than assume one.

The scheme replaced an earlier award scheme notified vide GR No. SSI/102014/924854/Ch dated 19 January 2015, and widened the scope to include a best MSME under the Start-up Gujarat scheme.

What awards are given under the scheme?

State Awards to Best MSMEs; separately for micro, small and medium enterprises

Three awards are given in each of the three size categories, one for each theme:

1. Growth in production and profit.
2. Quality and environment improvement measures.
3. Innovation in technology for new product or process development.

That is nine awards, each carrying Rs 2 lakh, a trophy and an appreciation letter.

Awards to Best MSE Entrepreneurs

One award each, again Rs 2 lakh with a trophy and appreciation letter, is given to the best micro and small enterprise entrepreneur in four categories:

• Woman entrepreneur
• Young entrepreneur. A first-generation entrepreneur below 35 years of age
• Scheduled Caste entrepreneur
• Scheduled Tribe entrepreneur

Award for Commercially Successful Best MSME Start-up

One award of Rs 2 lakh, a trophy and an appreciation letter goes to a commercially successful best MSME start-up. This category was introduced under the Gujarat Industrial Policy 2020 and links the awards to the Start-up Gujarat scheme.

Counting all three groups, the scheme provides 14 award slots a year, worth Rs 28 lakh in total prize money at the stated rate of Rs 2 lakh each.

Who is eligible for the MSME awards, and who is not eligible?

Who can be considered

• An enterprise that satisfies the conditions of a micro, small or medium enterprise under the MSMED Act, 2006, as amended from time to time by the Government of India.
• An enterprise holding an acknowledgement of Udyog Aadhaar Memorandum or Udyam Registration.
• An enterprise that has been in continuous production for the previous three years.
• An enterprise that holds valid statutory clearances and licences as applicable to its activity.
• For the entrepreneur awards, the promoter of a micro or small enterprise meeting the specific category condition; woman, first-generation entrepreneur below 35, Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe.

Who cannot apply or is not eligible

• An enterprise not in continuous production for the previous three years.
• An enterprise without Udyam Registration or Udyog Aadhaar acknowledgement, since the scheme's own definition depends on it.
• An enterprise whose statutory clearances or licences are lapsed or missing.
• An enterprise that has already won an award in a category, the resolution restricts an MSME or start-up to only one award in each category during the operative period of the scheme.
• Individual employees, students or job seekers. This is an enterprise recognition scheme, not a personal benefit, and there is no citizen application route.
• Large industrial undertakings, which fall outside the MSME definition altogether.

How to apply for the Gujarat MSME awards

1. Watch for the annual advertisement. The MSME Commissionerate invites applications every year for all award groups through an advertisement in local newspapers with wide publicity, and publishes forms on ic.gujarat.gov.in and msmec.gujarat.gov.in.
2. Download the correct form and checklist for the award group you are applying under. The Commissionerate prescribes the application forms and the procedure; for special category awards it also publishes a General Manager's certificate format to be signed by the District Industries Centre.
3. Assemble the supporting documents, Udyam Registration acknowledgement, three years of production and financial records, audited statements, statutory licences and clearances, and category-specific proof such as a caste certificate, age proof, quality or environment certificates, or patent and process records.
4. Get the District Industries Centre certificate where the form requires it, from the General Manager of your district's DIC.
5. Submit the completed application to the MSME Commissionerate, Block No. 1, 4th Floor, Udyog Bhavan, Gandhinagar 382 010, by the closing date stated in the advertisement.
6. Await evaluation. A working committee constituted by the MSME Commissionerate ranks the applications and recommends them to the State Level supported Committee, which makes the final selection. The Commissionerate then informs the list of selected enterprises.

Who decides the awards?

The State Level supported Committee for this scheme has six members:

Including the President of the Gujarat Small Scale Industries Federation gives the industry association a direct seat in the selection, which is unusual for a state award committee and worth knowing when preparing an application.

Expenditure on the awards is met from the sanctioned grant of the financial year under budget head 49-2851-00-102-19, the MSME Commissioner's scheme head.

What makes an application competitive?

The three themes in the size-category awards tell you what the committee is scoring:

• Growth in production and profit: show three-year trends in output value, turnover and profit, backed by audited statements, and explain what drove the growth.
• Quality and environment improvement measures — attach quality certifications, effluent and emission compliance records, energy or water savings, and any GPCB consents.
• Innovation in technology for new product or process development; attach patent filings or grants, design registrations, process change documentation and evidence of commercialisation.

For the entrepreneur awards, the eligibility documents themselves carry weight: the caste certificate for SC and ST awards, proof of age below 35 and of first-generation entrepreneurship for the young entrepreneur award, and the promoter's own shareholding or proprietorship for the woman entrepreneur award.

For the start-up award, the scheme's own wording, "commercially successful", means revenue and customer traction matter, not the idea alone.

Common reasons applications are set aside

• Continuous production not demonstrated for the full previous three years.
• Udyam Registration missing or in a different name from the applicant enterprise.
• Expired statutory clearance or licence at the time of scrutiny.
• Applying again in a category already won during the operative period.
• Incomplete checklist. The Commissionerate publishes a checklist precisely because incomplete files are the most common failure.
• Missing DIC General Manager certificate where the special category form requires it.

Where to get help

The implementing office is the MSME Commissionerate, Block No. 1, 4th Floor, Udyog Bhavan, Gandhinagar 382 010, Gujarat, telephone 23258378, email comm-msme@gujarat.gov.in. The District Industries Centre in your district is the first point of contact for form collection, the GM certificate and help with the checklist.

There is no application fee for the awards, and no agent or consultant can secure a selection; ranking is done by a working committee and the final call rests with the State Level supported Committee.