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Scale Industries
According to the SSI Sector survey conducted by the Ministry and National Informatics Centre with the base year of 1987-88, the following interesting observations were made related to employment in the small scale sector.
Generation of Employment - Industry Group-wise
Food products industry has ranked first in generating employment, providing employment to 4.82 lakh persons (13.1%).
The next two industry groups were Non-metallic mineral products with employment of 4.46 lakh persons (12.2%) and Metal products with 3.73 lakh persons (10.2%).
In Chemicals & chemical products, Machinery parts and except Electrical parts, Wood products, Basic Metal Industries, Paper products & printing, Hosiery & garments, Repair services and Rubber & plastic products, the contribution ranged from 9% to 5%, the total contribution by these eight industry groups being 49%.
In all other industries the contribution was less than 5%.
Per unit employment
Per unit employment was the highest (20) in units engaged in Beverages, tobacco & tobacco products mainly due to the high employment potential of this industry particularly in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Assam and Tamil Nadu.
Next came Cotton textile products (17), Non-metallic mineral products (14.1), Basic metal industries (13.6) and Electrical machinery and parts (11.2.) The lowest figure of 2.4 was in Repair services line.
Per unit employment was the highest (10) in metropolitan areas and lowest (5) in rural areas.
However, in Chemicals & chemical products, Non-metallic mineral products and Basic metal industries per unit employment was higher in rural areas as compared to metropolitan areas/urban areas.
In urban areas highest employment per unit was in Beverages, tobacco products (31 persons) followed by Cotton textile products (18), Basic metal industries (13) and Non-metallic mineral products (12).
Rural
Non-metallic products contributed 22.7% to employment generated in rural areas. Food Products accounted for 21.1%, Wood Products and Chemicals and chemical products shared between them 17.5%.
Urban
As for urban areas, Food Products and Metal Products almost equally shared 22.8% of employment. Machinery and parts except electrical, Non-metallic mineral products, and Chemicals & chemical products between them accounted for 26.2% of employment.
In metropolitan areas the leading industries were Metal products, Machinery and parts except electrical and Paper products & printing (total share being 33.6%).
State-wise Employment Distribution
Tamil Nadu (14.5%) made the maximum contribution to employment.
This was followed by Maharashtra (9.7%), Uttar Pradesh (9.5%) and West Bengal (8.5%) the total share being 27.7%.
Gujarat (7.6%), Andhra Pradesh (7.5%), Karnataka (6.7%), and Punjab (5.6%) together accounted for another 27.4%.
Per unit employment was high - 17, 16 and 14 respectively - in Nagaland, Sikkim and Dadra & Nagar Haveli.
It was 12 in Maharashtra, Tripura and Delhi.
Madhya Pradesh had the figure of 2. In all other cases it was around the average of 6.
Production
The small scale industries sector plays a vital role for the growth of the country. It contributes 40% of the gross manufacture to the Indian economy.
It has been estimated that a lakh rupees of investment in fixed assets in the small scale sector produces 4.62 lakhs worth of goods or services with an approximate value addition of ten percentage points.
The small scale sector has grown rapidly over the years. The growth rates during the various plan periods have been very impressive.
The number of small scale units has increased from an estimated 8.74 lakhs units in the year 1980-81 to an estimated 31.21 lakhs in the year 1999.
From the year 1990-91 this sector has exhibited a comparitively lower growth trend (though positive) which continued during the next two years. However, this has to be viewed in the background of the general recession in the economy. The transition period of the process of economic reforms was also affected for some period by adverse factors such as foreign exchange constraints, credit squeeze, demand recession, high interest rates, shortage of raw material etc.
When the performance of this sector is viewed against the growth in the manufacturing and the industry sector as a whole, it instills confidence in the resilience of the small scale sector.
The estimates of growth for the year 1995-96 have shown an upswing.The growth of SSI sector has surpassed overall industrial growth from 1991 onwards.The positive trend is likely to strengthen in the coming years.This trend augurs a bright future for the small scale industry.
