MSME) industry forms the backbone of India. Approximately 60 million MSMEs employ a workforce well over 110 million and contribute to about 30% of India’s GDP.
According to the Bain-PRICE survey in 2018, more than 50% of all income earners in India are self-employed across income groups and therefore, the development of the MSME sector is critical to India’s growth aspirations.However, this all-important sector has been plagued by a variety of structural issues, which have now been exacerbated by covid-19.
The traditional challenges included limited access to finance, infrastructure bottlenecks, dearth of skills and innovation and regulatory constraints.