Nano Enterprises can boost the economy if support provided

Eradication of unemployment problem is paramount. A huge number of people belong to the informal sector and trying very hard to remain relevant and earn for themselves. They deserve all the support to better their quality of service, employability, financial conditions and that can definitely ease the problem the country facing although India has more than 65% of the population below the age of 35.

I recently interacted at the Invest India counter in International Solar Festival of ISA in New Delhi and the representative told me that you have to be an LLP company at least to avail any benefit. It means the enterprise needs to be incorporated as minimum. Although around 95% of the India MSMEs are not incorporated.

 It will struck anyone’s  mind what about the others who do not fall in the above categories say for example a welding cum machining shop, a local street chaat seller, vegetable vendor outside your residential colony, an electrician with or without a shop, a kirana store, an ironing clothing family nearby you, a waste picker from your home for recycling , an individual professional ( sole proprietor ) and so on. These units operate with or without a fixed location or in homes or small shops or workshops. The activities undertaken demand a little or no capital or involve a certain amount of capital. They can generate employment for unskilled, semi-skilled as well as skilled. The access to formal finance is very limited to them and they mostly depend on their own resources or taking loan from friends or family members.

They are also entrepreneurs, work very hard and do a commendable contribution to the society from the point of view of employment generation, GDP of the country but they are mostly devoid of many governments sponsored benefits as they do not meet the required systems as specified under categories like MSME. Although there are instances of the involvement of the non-profits, FPOs /FPCs, etc.  who are helping the small enterprises, Women Self Help Groups (SHGs); say for example the involvement of the SHGs under the Urja Mandala Program of the Development Alternatives. but that is not sufficient for this huge population. They are considered as unorganised sector in spite of all the honest contributions from them. They have the potential to scale up and contribute more to the economy and the society if they are given desired facilities like access to funds, training and skill development.

In order to further get the information about them, I researched the website of the ministry of statistics and programme implementation ( www.mospi.gov.in) and got the below interesting information in the annual survey of unincorporated sector enterprises (ASUSE) for 2023: –

• No of establishments belonging to unincorporated involved into the manufacturing, trade and other service sector ( other than agriculture and construction) grew from 5.97 Cr during April 2021-March 2022 to 6.5 Cr during Oct 2022- Sept 2023 .
• Out of this 3.56 Cr belong to the rural areas and 2.94 Cr pertains to the urban areas
• At all India level, the percentage of such numbers in U.P. (13.82%), West Bengal (12.03%) and Maharashtra (9.37%)
• Only 6.4% of the total establishments reported to have maintained audited books of account
• About 36.8% of the estimated establishments have found to be registered under different acts
• They have employed around 11 Cr people
• Are generally not registered on the GST portal

All these entrepreneurs or “Nano Enterprises” whatever is said need a separate recognition and support considering their huge potential to employment generation and contribution to the economy of the country. Let’s hope that the corporates under CSR mandates and the Govt schemes would be there effectively to better their quality of service, employability, financial conditions