Hectic political activities have picked up in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the assembly elections next year. From issues of public interest to populist announcements, the process of highlighting issues has begun in right earnest. However, even as opposition parties make their own claims, various initiatives rolled out by the UP government in promoting Micro, Small and Medium scale industries (MSMEs) is overshadowing all other issues.

In the last 4.5 years of the BJP regime, more than 76.73 lakh people were provided with loans worth Rs 2,42,028 crore for doing business in the MSME sector and about two crore people got EMPLOYMENT in the sector. The MSME sector of the state is making a new record in the country. In fact, 14 per cent of the MSME units of India are housed in Uttar Pradesh and due to the of the State Government, Investment in this sector has increased continuously.

As per UP government figures, MSME was the most important sector after Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture in terms of providing employment in the state. In terms of number of MSMEs, the share of UP in the country was 14.2 per cent. Through the MSME sector, the state has been exporting more than Rs 1.14 lakh crore for three consecutive years.

In the 2016-17 fisal, during the SP regime, 6.35 lakh MSMEs were provided loans worth Rs 27,2 02 crores while soon after the BJP came to power, in the 2017-18 fiscal, loans worth Rs 41,193 crore was provided to 7.87 lakh entrepreneurs in the MSMEs sector. Later in the 2018-19 fiscal, 10.24 lakh MSME entrepreneurs were provided loans worth Rs 47,764 crore and in 2019-20, Rs 62,831 crore was disbursed to 17.45 lakh entrepreneurs. In the financial year 2020-21, 34.80 lakh MSME units were provided loans worth Rs 63,038 crore while loans amounting to Rs 16,002 crore were provided to 1.25 lakh new MSME units from April 1 to November 10 this year.