Jobs under govt's employment generation scheme spike 52%, says Nitin Gadkari

The current session of the Parliament is rife with employment talk. On Wednesday, the Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Nitin Gadkari, said that under the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), the estimated employment generated in micro enterprises during 2018/19 was 5.87 lakh. That's a spike of 52 per cent over the previous year (2017/18) when the employment generated through the scheme was 3.87 lakh. In 2016/17, employment totalled 4.08 lakh.

Gadkari was replying to a question in the Lok Sabha.

The PMEGP is a credit-linked subsidy programme administered by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India. Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) is the nodal agency at national level for the implementation of the scheme while at the state level, the scheme is implemented through State KVIC Directorates, State Khadi and Village Industries Boards, District Industries Centres and banks.  The scheme seeks to generate employment opportunities in rural as well as urban areas through the setting up of self employment ventures.

The Minister added that his ministry implements various schemes to support promotion and development of the micro businesses. Besides PMEGP, there is a Micro and Small Enterprises-Cluster Development Programme, a scheme for Promotion of MSMEs in North Eastern Region and Sikkim, a Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries, Procurement and Marketing Support Scheme, Entrepreneurship and Skill Development Programme, a Credit Guarantee Scheme for Micro and Small Enterprises and Credit Linked Capital Subsidy and Technology Upgradation Scheme, among others.

The Central Statistics Office had earlier reported that the share of MSME in the country's GDP in 2017/18 was at 29.7 per cent.

Meanwhile, Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, said that the number of job fairs organised under National Career Service (NCS) over the last three years were 2,819. The number of employers who attended job fairs stood at 24, 828.

In another response, Gangwar said that the government is strategically promoting labour-intensive manufacturing and expanding employment opportunities in tourism and agro-based industries. The National Manufacturing Policy, he responded, identifies employment intensive industries such as textiles and garments, leather and footwear, gems and jewellery and food processing as special focus attention sectors. "The policy provides special attention for Small Scale Industries as they offer employment opportunities both for self-employment and jobs across diverse geographies," he said.

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