Struggles of Rural Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises for Bank Finance: Role of District Industries Centres in India

Abstract

MSMEs are particularly important for emerging countries, primarily because of their potential in job creation. The MSEs are more than just GDP earners; they are instruments of inclusive growth which touch upon the lives of the most vulnerable, marginalised, women and the most skilled. Being the largest source of employment after agriculture, the MSE sector in India enables 650 lakh people. MSEs also act as ancillary industries for large scale industries. Yet, lack of access to finance is a major obstacle to their growth.In addition to limited development of industries in NER, there is limited availability of data on whatever industries exist there. Around 54% of industrial units are concentrated in Assam among NE states. There were 37,356 registered MSME units in Assam providing employment to 2.05 lakh persons till the end of March 2013. The SLBC data showing the credit disbursals towards MSME sector by commercial banks inAssam do not show a favourable picture. Formal lending sector is always preferred over informal sector by the MSMEs. The study aims to find out the characteristics of MSMEs operating under rural villages in Assam and also the various problems encountered by them in obtaining finance from banks.

Unlocking the Potential of Microfinance Solutions on Urban Woman Entrepreneurship Development in East Africa: A Bibliometric Analysis Perspective

“…This section presents publication trends on microfinancing regarding female entrepreneurship. Whereas the results in the preceding sections depict a substantial growth in the annual scholarship on microfinance and SME growth, several hindrances have been observed and are accountable for the miserly growth of woman-owned enterprises [4,10,18,33,40,69]. This growing trend in publications may be elucidated by collective concerns around enhancing access for female entrepreneurship through microfinance.…”

“…Albeit the average growth rate of woman-owned businesses in emerging markets is significantly lower than that of men, their growth potential is becoming evident. A recent account by [13,33] estimates about 31-38% (8 to 10 million) of formal SMEs in emerging markets have at least one woman founder member. Precisely, woman-owned SMEs produce impressive revenues in excess of 100,000 USD per annum, matching positively with those in the US.…”

“…The key findings expose that microfinancing support services for woman entrepreneurs are fundamental for the uninterrupted productivity and growth of woman-owned enterprises since a large number of these firms lack access to sustainable funding mechanisms when compared to maleowned firms. This concept has received strong support from primary authors from Asia (for instance, [33,43,69,70,77] and a limited number of scholarships from Africa [18,28,40]. Therefore, it is important that financial institutions and international development agencies pay great attention to increasing access to finance for woman-led businesses along with distinguishing the role women play in contributing to the SDGs, particularly economic empowerment and global climate change to fragility.…”

“…SMEs in Africa account for 90% of the private sector and provide nearly 80% of jobs across the continent. On the contrary, woman-owned SMEs account for only 33.3% of all businesses in the global formal economy [12], yet they are integral to inspiring employment opportunities, improving the community livelihood of the productive poor, and achieving overall economic progress.…”