A Comparative Study of the Relative Position of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMES) in West Bengal vis-a-vis the National Scenario

Abstract

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises considered as the growth engine of Indian economy and is also applicable for all developing countries and underdeveloped countries where capital is scarce and labour is plenty. MSMEs sector provides maximum opportunities for both self employment and jobs outside the agriculture sector. In India , after agriculture this sector is the second largest employment provider, currently (as per Fourth Census) near about sixty million people are engaged in this sector. MSMEs sector can be registered or unregistered. Considering the high importance of MSMEs, current paper is trying to show the relative position of this sector in West Bengal vis-a-vis India. West Bengal occupies a predominant position so far as the development of micro, small-and medium enterprises is concerned. Main finding of the paper is that most of MSMEs are under proprietary business and in micro level, unregistered MSMEs sector are the major part of this sector, employment was many times more in unregistered MSMEs sector than in registered sector, West Bengal has less women entrepreneurs than in the National level, as per third and fourth censuses the growth rate of Registered MSMEs in West Bengal were negative, the main reason of sickness of this sector are lack of demand and shortage of working capital etc. This study is based on secondary sources of data.