In order to formulate better policies and schemes for micro, small & medium enterprises (MSMEs), the government has carried out the fourth round of all-India census of the sector and will release the results soon, MSMEs secretary Dinesh Rai said on Friday. The census would provide crucial information on production, employment and exports by MSMEs, helping the government to formulate relevant schemes, he added.
?We have conducted a census (for MSMEs) and we are expecting the results very soon. Once we have this data, we will be in a position to have more policy initiative in the area,? Rai said at workshop on ?Management Skills to Source Financing and Management of Technologies by SMEs?, organised by AIMA here.
The last census was carried out in 2002-03 and the industry has been crying for fresh data on MSMEs? contribution to the economy. Even the Economic Survey 2008-09 stated that lack of new statistics has proved to be a hindrance to government?s efforts to help the sector during the turmoil instigated by global credit crunch. ?While it is desirable to assess performance of the MSMEs against the backdrop of the recent developments, limitations of data may not permit doing so,? the survey report stated, referring to the financial crunch.
Besides production, employment and export data, the government has also sought to gather information about the raw material used, assets, products and services, net worth, outstanding debt and number of sick units. This is the first census where data has been collated from micro enterprises as well.
The census was carried out from January 2008 to March 2008, during which the government collected information from MSMEs registered as at the end of March 2007. It also gathered statistics on a sample size of unregistered units.
As per industry estimates, about 1.3 crore MSMEs were operating in the country with 42 million employees at then end of March 2007.
They contributed 9% to the gross domestic production and 40% to exports. Major areas of operation for MSMEs were food processing, chemicals and chemical products, basic metal and metal products, electrical & machinery parts and rubber & plastic articles.