The MSME sector has been drastically hit by the corona pandemic and the economic slowdown in India. However, dimming the hopes of the sector further is the non-commitment of the government. It seems that the sector is of no importance for either the Prime Minister or his cabinet. Many believed that the PM’s Independence Day speech would also focus on the languishing MSME sector and perhaps even announce some measures to help the sector recover. However, Narendra Modi’s speech failed to even address the same. Interestingly, the speech by the powerhouse of the ruling NDA’s leader had nothing more than vague assurances for boosting development, but MSME was conspicuously absent from his speech. With a contribution of over 30 percent of GDP, 48 percent in exports, and the largest number of workers in the country, MSME can easily be called one of the powerhouses that keep the country going. Additionally, among all industrial units in India, 95 percent are MSMEs, which holds the key to inclusive growth in India.

The Prime Minister’s speech, this year, was mostly a repetition of earlier I-Day promises. Though it is a fact that infrastructure projects have a huge potential to generate jobs, yet they cannot depend solely on it. Yes, the ‘Gati Shakti’ announcement shows a lot of promise but neglecting the existing avenues of development and job generation will be foolish. It is thus, the prerogative of the Prime Minister to personally see that the ailing MSME sector gets the support it deserves right now. As far as assurances are concerned, Modi and his team are not in a good position. Given the ‘Good Days’ slogan of 2014, or doubling of Farmers Income by 2022, et al, it is safe to ignore them as his great promises generally tend to fail. In the past, his demonetization announced in November 2016 proved to be a thunderbolt for millions of MSMEs who just did not survive, while a million others are still struggling to survive. Almost all MSMEs had to reduce their production and millions were even producing only 25 percent of their capacity. Even when MSMEs were staggering, GST was hurriedly implemented from July 1, 2017, for which neither government machinery was ready nor our business and enterprises. This proved fatal to millions of other MSMEs. This resulted in unprecedented job loss and by the beginning of 2018, the unemployment rate in the country was 6.1 percent which was 45 years high.

In May 2020, PM Modi had announced the Covid-19 response package, closely followed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s announcement of a special package of INR3 lakh crore for MSMEs in the form of access to collateral-free loans. Meanwhile, given the implementation horrors, the World Bank stated that out of 58 million MSMEs, over 40 percent lacked formal access to finance in its report. The report had come after the loss of 15 lakh jobs in a single month of May chiefly due to shutting down of MSMEs or scaling down their operation during the second wave of Covid-19. Despite such sufferings, the sector could not attract the attention of our Prime Minister, who rather proudly talked about the reforms. Focused policies and programs to revive the dying MSMEs are the need of the hour. Here is hoping that the PM allows Amrit Mahotsav to also benefit the MSMEs, so that they may prosper during the 25 years of Amrit Kaala head.