A STUDY OF RECENT PERFORMANCE AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF VILLAGE INDUSTRIES IN INDIA

Abstract

Rural industries come under the aegis of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) of government of India. These industries primarily aim at creating rural employment and self- sufficiency which leads to economic growth. In this paper the performance of the village industries in India has been analysed in terms of three most vital performance-based indicators namely- production, sales and employment generation. The study basically aims at analysing the annual trends and growth rate of production and sales of the village industries in India. Moreover, the status and the growth rate of employment generation of the industries are also analysed in order to understand the contribution of the village industries in the Indian economic growth. The study has been conducted for a period of last 15 years by analysing the secondary sources of data and the methodology of the study is descriptive cum analytical in nature comprising of tabular, diagrammatic and graphic presentation. It has been found from the study that, during the period from 2009-10 to 2014-15 the production and the sales of the village industries has been showing a positive trend with negligible lag between the two trends line indicating very low profitability of the industry. However, from 2014-15 onwards the profitability of the industries has been found to be on increasing trend. It has also been found that, the growth rate of the production and sales of the village industries has been fallen down but the employment growth rate has been increased in the recent times. This puts an indication of the unsatisfactory performance of the village industries in India and a challenge for the future prosperity. Suggestions are put forwarded on the basis of the crucial findings of the study.