In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha recently, Virbhadra Singh, Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises said that the growth in major parameters pertaining to registered MSMEs viz. number of enterprises, employment and gross output, as per third all India census of small scale industries with reference year 2001-02 and fourth all India census of MSMEs shows annual compound growth rate of 2.61 per cent,8.60 per cent and 30.26 per cent respectively.
MSMEs are highly diverse in their nature of activity and operate across the non-agricultural segment of economy. Specific growth targets for the sector during 12th plan is likely to be on par with that of national economy, as these enterprises are dependent on the macro economic factors influencing the economy and industry.
To facilitate promotion and development as well as to enhance competitiveness of MSMEs in domestic and global market, so as to achieve higher growth rate of MSMEs, ongoing initiatives include:
‘Policy Package of Stepping up Credit to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs),’ in the year 2005, which envisages public sector banks to fix their own targets for funding SMEs in order to achieve a minimum 20 per cent year-on-year growth in credit to the SME sector.
Further, the Ministry is implementing various schemes/programmes relating to credit, infrastructural development, technology upgradation, marketing, entrepreneurial / skill development, etc., for assisting the MSE sector in meeting the challenges.