The MSME sector is one of the significant contributors to the Indian economy in terms of GDP and employment. The MSMED Act 2006 gave a definite direction to the sector. Another significant development for this sector was by way of introducing Udyog Aadhaar Memorandum (UAM) from 2015. It was a path-breaking step to promote ease-of-doing-business for MSMEs. Since the introduction of UAM, a unique dynamic real-time data is being maintained by the Ministry of MSME, GoI. Taking a clue from the same, analysis was done to comprehend the various aspects of MSMEs in the country. It was seen that as on 12th May, 2020, there were about 94 lakh MSME registered with UAM, in which 5.20 crore people were employed, these had financial investments to the tune of Rs. 12.73 crore. Micro enterprises constituted a majority in terms of – number of enterprises (88 percent) and personnel employed (62 percent) in the Indian MSME canvas. Albeit the maximum employment and investment per Unit was seen in Medium sized enterprises. Male proprietorship accounted for almost four times that of the female proprietors. There was an extremely low proportion of ST and SC ownership of MSMEs. The Services segment of MSME not only provided significantly more (64.7 percent) employment than the manufacturing segment (35.3 percent), it also attracted more investments (65.8 percent) than the Manufacturing segment (34.2 percent). Of total enterprises, 93.8 percent of enterprises were with less than Rs. 25 lakh of investments; and only 6.2 percent more than Rs. 25 lakh of investments. It is ironical to note that the – government policies, financial support packages, institutional credit, research, etc., have all been manifestly focused on large entrepreneurs. It is cardinal to appreciate that ‘one fits all’ treatment for MSMEs cannot work. Time has come to give the small aspiring entrepreneurs sufficient succour and support to enable them to proactively contribute in India’s growth aspirations. There is an exigent need to have more deep systematic reforms for the Micro and Small entrepreneurs in the nation.
Source: Malhotra Rakesh and Gupta Narayani The Significance of Micro and Small on the Canvas of UAM Registered MSME”. Published in International Journal of Research in Engineering, Science and Management Volume-3, Issue-5, May-2020 http://www.ijresm.com | ISSN (Online): 2581-5792. Pp: 935