MSME: Yogi Adityanath government's weapon against Opposition criticism over Covid-19

The UP Assembly election is just months away, and the Opposition is gearing up to attack the government over Covid-19 "mismanagement" and the state's apparently poor economic condition.

But, the government can counter the Opposition attack by stressing the works done in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the past four years. According to a Business Standard report, there has been a sizeable credit flow of about Rs 2.2 trillion to the state’s MSMEs. It is important to note that the MSME sector is the largest provider of employment in UP after agriculture. It contributes more than 60 per cent of the state’s industrial output and 40 per cent to the export. The state's export worth was more than Rs 1.21 trillion during 2020-21.

A top UP government official said the infusion of this amount had a massive effect in the state and resulted in industrial sector investments of almost Rs 4 trillion, which produced 25 million direct and indirect jobs and self-employment opportunities.

Read more: UP attracted investment worth Rs 4 lakh crore, communal riots checked: Yogi Adityanath

According to the UP Additional Chief Secretary (MSME and Export Promotion), Navneet Sehgal, even as the pandemic hit in 2020-21, the state government facilitated a credit infusion of about Rs 73,765 crore to the MSME sector, which helped in overcoming the crisis. “Compared to the credit offtake of Rs 28,136 crore in 2017-18, the infusion of Rs 73,765 crore in 2020-21 indicates the quantum leap in credit facilitation by the UP government,” Sehgal said, adding that about 7.4 million units had benefited from this."

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath while inaugurating the Indigenization Summit on Defence & Aerospace (ISDA 2021) said, “We have recast more than 30 investment-related policies in the past four years to spur industrialisation. The state now ranks second in terms of ease of doing business while it is today the country’s second-largest economy after Maharashtra.”

According to public finance and policy expert Yashvir Tyagi, the state government has worked hard to make UP a preferred destination for foreign and domestic investors, and now positive results are being witnessed.

So it is needless to say that as the Opposition parties like Samajwadi Party, Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party prepare to turn up the heat on the BJP government, the saffron party will project their works in the MSME sector and how the government has been able to create jobs when the Covid-19 pandemic battered India and its economy.