Indian Industries Association (IIA) has demanded Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath-led Government of Uttar Pradesh to formulate a separate development policy for the MSME sector in the state. Unconvinced with the new UP Industrial Policy announced on July 4, the association has submitted a White Paper on ‘MSME Policy in UP’ putting together suggestions after extensive research on the sector.

IIA said MSME sector is responsible for huge employment generation and contributes no less than large enterprises in manufacturing outputs and exports in UP. The major inclination of the new policy towards large scale industries and investments has concerned this apex representative body of micro, small and medium enterprises in India, and thus the demand for a separate MSME Development Policy in the state.

Drawing comparison between the contribution of Uttar Pradesh in India’s economy (8.4 per cent) and its share in total population (16.5 per cent), IIA has pointed out that MSME sector has huge potential to prosper in the state and its development can bring the two contributions at par.

IIA conducted an exhaustive research over MSME Policies of 14 states – Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Orissa, Kerala and Maharashtra alongside Uttar Pradesh to analyse preferred model for strategic industrial setups in UP. After which the association’s President Sunil Vaish handed the White Paper to the state’s Principal Secretary (MSME & Export Promotion).

IIA has also proposed to redesign an online system to address the grievances of MSMEs as well as to re-establish the online single table system for the sector.

As per the latest annual report of MSME Ministry, 5238568 MSME establishments exist in Uttar Pradesh employing 11396965 people. Assuming an average family size of 5 persons, MSME sector in UP is feeding 5.7 crore population which is more than one-fourth of the total population of the state. Nonetheless, MSME sector is widely accepted as the backbone of any economy and overall development of states.