Survey shows 58% units doing better than last year

A nationwide survey of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), instituted by the India SME Forum and executed by SDRC India, conducted over a nine-month period and covering 26 states and 330,000 MSMEs across the country, has revealed that 58 per cent of enterprises polled were doing far better business than last year in terms of turnover and profitability; 24 per cent were doing marginally better than last year.

Sixty-one per cent of the respondents had employed new staff this year, 19 per cent had no change in the number of employees from last year and a sizeable 20 per cent had reduced the workforce. The survey findings are based on the responses of 54,968 enterprises.

In terms of ease of starting or doing business in a state, Tamil Nadu topped the survey, with 92 per cent respondents extremely satisfied with policies, infrastructure, benefits and incentives. Gujarat came a close second with 91.75 per cent of the respondents from the state highlighting tremendous growth.

In terms of providing support for the country's MSMEs, the best-rated public sector banks were Bank of Baroda, Bank of India and State Bank of India and the best private banks were ICICI Bank and Yes Bank. In the category of non-banking financial companies, the best support was offered by Reliance Commercial Finance and Intec Capital.

In the 'Best SME Exchange' category, BSE SME topped the survey whereas in the 'Best MSME Associations' category, Salem District Small Scale & Tiny Industries Association got a score 6.85 out of 10, Association of Industries Madhya Pradesh scored 6.85 out of 10 and Small Scale Industries Association Udaipur scored 6.70 out of 10.

The India SME Forum is a not-for-profit initiative, formed to propel the SME movement, by nurturing entrepreneurship and supporting innovative, globally competitive, SMEs in India, according to a press release issued by the organisation.