** RIDHI SHARMA **
Small & medium Enterprise (SME) sector is the seedbed of Indian economy. This article throws a light on the contribution made by SME’s in making India a growing economy; It is also an attempt to find out the reasons for the slow growth of Indian entrepreneurs as compared to other countries.
Small business is regarded as seedbed for entrepreneurship as it provides favourable conditions for emergence and growth of entrepreneurs. In India SME’s (small & medium enterprises) are assigned with a significant role of industrialisation, equitable distribution of wealth, employment generation & economic development of the country. The attainment of independence of India on 15th’ August, 1947, made a tremendous difference to industrial landscape. Our first Prime Minister Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru gave due importance to small industries. The industrial policy of 1948, liberalisation in 1991 and also support provided by government of India by establishing various financial institutions & entrepreneurship development agencies like SIDBI, SIDCO, EDP , ITCO in almost every state of India has foster the growth of Small & medium sectors of our economy.
The contribution of small industries is remarkable in industrial as well as economic development of the country. The development of SSI sector is entirely dependent on the initiatives taken by entrepreneurs. Table I reveals the growth of SSI sector since 1990-1995 to 2005-2006, in terms of number of units set up, employment generated and value of production at current and constant price.
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|Table I : Growth of SSI/SME Sector |
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