Crisil SME Tracker: Incentivised SMEs can help bridge India's skill deficit

Availability of skilled labour is critical for Indian SME exporters to be productive and competitive

CRISIL believes subsidising and incentivising credible small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to undertake skill development training programmes can help narrow India’s yawning skill deficit. 

As things stand, less than five per cent of the country’s workforce possesses formal vocational skills. 

In the context, engaging SMEs in skill development can offer two major benefits “it can boost the effectiveness of the government’s Skill India initiative and also improve the competitiveness of the SME sector, which is India’s second-largest employment generator. 

The government-empowered National Skill Development Corporation has adopted a public-private partnership model to promote skill development, by catalysing the creation of large, high-quality and