SME Role On Nation Building Efforts Of India – Joydip Chakladar, CEO AllIndiaLIve
India had been a place for Small and Medium Enterprises, from Prehistoric times. The earliest mention of them, were found at the time of first Indian Emperor ‘Chandragupta Maurya’. At that time, small enterprises were built by trading classes who were known as ‘Vaishya’. It was also found that ‘Roman’ and ‘Greek Civilization’ had continuous trade interaction, with India, through Arabian middlemen’s. That was what led to an effort for people in the West, to find India, which they perceived as ‘land of fortune’. It seemed that we were coming back to that stage, by the active participation of SME sector, in Indian Economic Growth Story. Though, we had our own forms of entrepreneurs, from prehistoric terms, who had success stories of their own type, even before the conventional entrepreneurial model of US came into existence, with Industrial age, and the colonial rulers, started invading the world.
Management research predicted that entrepreneurial SMEs had competitive advantages over established companies in this time of change. Recent Indian SME entrepreneurs, had taken full advantage of flexible and fast changing business model, which we see large organization were unable to incorporate due to their size. In general, around the world, Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs) played a critical role for the economy and social development, of the emerging markets. In India, SME sector had played the same role too, helped to create jobs, and generated revenue, for low income people. It had also fostered economic growth, social stability, at the same time contributed to the development of a dynamic private sector. The segment has lately come into the limelight, with increased focus from several government institutions, corporate bodies and banks, and was viewed as agents of growth. Apart from the policy focus, government had thrust towards promoting the SME segment. Globalization and India’s robust economic growth has opened several latent business opportunities, for this segment. However, there was a serious lack of structured information still on India’s SME sector.
SMEs account for almost 90% of industrial units in India, and 40% of value addition in the manufacturing sector. They contribute 35% to India’s merchandise exports. That’s how; SME’s were integral players in India’s economic growth story for a long span of time.
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Joydip Chakladar
CEO Team
The CEO Insights