Given the current situation of COVID-19 pandemic, India will losse 11 crore jobs,30 percent of GDP reports India’s leading daily Indian Express. According to its report, small enterprises pushed to brink amid looming distress and despair.

At stake are not only these jobs but the future of what makes up 45 per cent of the country’s total manufacturing output, 40 per cent of exports — and almost 30 per cent of the national GDP.Indian Express

From a Delhi-based machine-part manufacturing enterprise which can’t pay its 24 workers to a paint-maker in Pune fresh out of insolvency but facing a funds crunch, a start-up which got a Rs 90-lakh order to make masks but is waiting for banks to give credit, to a Ludhiana export unit whose bills haven’t been cleared — no other sector has been pushed so far to the edge by the pandemic and the Covid lockdown as Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

These make up the heart of the larger industrial ecosystem, acting largely as ancillary units for the big enterprises, and employ, across 5 crore units, an estimated 11 crore persons.

At stake are not only these jobs but the future of what makes up 45 per cent of the country’s total manufacturing output, 40 per cent of exports — and almost 30 per cent of the national GDP.

No wonder then that within the government, officials said, a second stimulus will be more targeted to this sector — rather than large corporates — as the MSME sector has not quite benefited from the series of relief measures announced earlier.

Over the last fortnight, the government has been holding discussions for the last two weeks to finalise a package for MSMEs. Addressing a webinar by FICCI Ladies Organisation Saturday, Union MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari said, “We have sent recommendations for a relief package to the Finance Minister and Prime Minister and I hope it will be announced soon. We will try to give relief to the extent possible.” A week ago, Gadkari had alluded to a Rs 1-lakh-crore revolving fund for MSMEs to provide them liquidity.

Since a large number of state capitals have been classified in red zones, this is also a huge stumbling block for MSME owners to find the points for sales across sectors.