Over the years, the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have become the backbone of the Indian industry. The enterprises within the MSME employ a labour-intensive mode of production and hence have a huge potential of generating employment opportunities in the country as well as producing a diverse range of products and services to meet the demands of domestic as well as global markets. There are over 6 crore MSME units in India employing more than 11 crores of people. But the MSMEs in India, as indeed globally, is characterized by heterogeneity in terms of size of the enterprises and variety of products and services, and the level of technology employed.
The MSME sector contributes 40 per cent to the national GDP and 28 per cent to the total exports by the country. There are many women-led enterprises in rural, urban, and semi-urban areas that contribute over 20 per cent of the total MSMEs with the scope for acting as a catalyst for economic growth across the geographic, social, and cultural strata of the country.