Ministries planning to allow small businesses to enter manufacturing sector

The MSME sector accounts for 30 per cent of the country's gross domestic product, anchoring 45 per cent of total industrial production

The micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and commerce ministries are discussing a broad range of moves to allow small businesses to foray into manufacturing sectors in which imports remain high.

Both ministries are identifying the industry sub-sectors such as medical devices, pharmaceuticals, plastics, and low-end engineering goods where small businesses can be encouraged — through specific subsidies or policy intervention — to make indigenously, a senior MSME ministry official said.

“Our officials have met their counterparts from the commerce department to chalk out areas in which imports are unsustainably high. Then, necessary policies will be framed, but it will