India has added more than 7.22 crore micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) on the Udyam Registration Portal since its launch in July 2020, while 1.21 lakh enterprises shut down during the same period, the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday.
In a written reply to an unstarred question, Minister of State for MSMEs Shobha Karandlaje said that registrations on the Udyam Registration (UR) portal and the Udyam Assist Platform (UAP) stood at 7,22,32,207 as of November 30, 2025. The data covers the period from FY21 to FY26 (till November 2025).
The government data further highlighted that 1,20,933 MSMEs were deregistered during this period, translating to 0.17% of total registrations under the revised MSME definition notified on July 1, 2020.
Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh lead new registrations
Among states, Maharashtra emerged as the largest contributor, with over 94.29 lakh MSMEs registered between FY21 and FY26, followed by Uttar Pradesh with more than 78.03 lakh registrations and Tamil Nadu with about 57.56 lakh units. Other large contributors include Gujarat, Karnataka, West Bengal and Rajasthan, reflecting the concentration of MSME activity in industrial and consumption-driven states.
In FY24 alone, total MSME registrations surged to 2.49 crore, before moderating to 2.06 crore in FY25 and 1.03 crore in FY26 (till November), indicating a post-pandemic normalisation in new enterprise formation.
Job losses concentrated in a few large states
On the closure front, the government data shows that MSME shutdowns led to employment losses of over 7.8 lakh jobs nationwide between FY21 and FY26 so far.
Maharashtra alone accounted for 29,061 MSME shutdowns resulting in over 1.27 lakh job losses, the highest among all states. Tamil Nadu recorded 14,605 closures, leading to over 91,000 job losses, while Uttar Pradesh saw 6,498 MSMEs shut down, affecting more than 58,000 jobs.
Other states with relatively high employment impact include Rajasthan, Telangana, West Bengal, Karnataka and Gujarat, reflecting the vulnerability of labour-intensive small enterprises in key manufacturing and services hubs.
Deregistrations not only due to closures
The MSME ministry clarified that deregistration on the Udyam portal does not always imply business failure. Enterprises are removed due to reasons such as a change in ownership, duplicate registration, certificate no longer required, and shutdown of operations, among others. Only a subset of deregistrations reflects permanent business closures.
It is important to note that the reply does not clarify how many enterprises deregistered due to financial distress, or any worker support programmes.
