More than 11 lakh MSMEs have got themselves registered till October 31, under the Udyam Registration system which took off on July 1 this year. This is welcome news. Poor registration has remained a lingering problem for India's millions of micro, small and medium enterprises, limiting the sector’s access to policy support, and now it is encouraging to see gradual increase in their number of registration over the years.

The government has revised the definition of MSMEs as well as the process of their registration from July 2020. A new registration portal, 'MSME/Udyam', was launched, and later it was seamlessly integrated with CBDT and GST networks as also with the GeM, making the registration process a totally paperless exercise. And now the latest figures reflect the positive efforts, though we have yet to achieve a lot considering the large number of MSMEs still in the unorganised sector.

A thorough look into the latest official data shows that micro, small and medium enterprises contributed 93.17%, 5.62% and 1.21%, respectively to overall Udyam registrations. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat are the 5 leading states while food products, textile, apparel, fabricated metal products and machinery & equipment are the top 5 sectors. It is encouraging that 1,01,03,512 persons have been given employment by these newly registered units.

It can be expected that the Udyam registration system will now help form a verified database of MSME units in the country, because the system is integrated with CBDT and GST. It is also encouraging that the MSME ministry has instructed all of its field establishments, including District Magistrates and District Industries Centres to extend full support for registration of MSME units. This definitely will add to the ease of doing business as far as MSMEs are concerned.

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