Small Industry Day is celebrated every year on ’30 August’.[1] This day is celebrated with the aim of promoting small scale industries and providing employment opportunities to the unemployed. In a developing country like India, small scale industries play an important role in economic development. Keeping in mind its strategic importance in the overall economic development of India, special emphasis has been laid on the need for the development of the small scale sector. Accordingly, the trend of policy support from the government for small scale industries has been helpful and favourable for the development of the small scale enterprise sector.
The government has defined small and cottage industries from time to time. Small industries are those industries which are carried out on a small scale and are generally run as a main business with the help of laborers and workers. Those industries in which 10 to 50 people work in exchange for wages come under small industries. Small industries are an industrial undertaking in which the investment is fixed assets in plant and machinery. This investment limit keeps changing from time to time by the government. In small industries, goods are procured from outside and technical skills can also be obtained from outside.
A small scale industrial unit is an industrial undertaking where the investment in plant and machinery does not exceed Rs 1 crore, but the investment limit in some items like hosiery, hand tools, medicines and drugs, stationery items and sports goods etc. was up to Rs 5 crore. The small scale industry category has been given a new name – Small Enterprise. A unit where the investment in plant and machinery is more than the limit of small scale industry but up to Rs 10 crore is called a medium scale enterprise.
Small scale and cottage industries have a very important place in the Indian economy. Since ancient times, India’s small scale and cottage industries have been producing high quality products. Although, like other Indian industries, this sector also suffered a huge decline during the British rule, but after independence, it has developed at a very fast pace.
