Employment and prospect of rural entrepreneurship in SSI sector in Arunachal Pradesh: Evidences from third SSI census report

Rural entrepreneurship in Small Scale Industrial (SSI) sector in India is occupying prime importance in the sense that; institutions and individuals seem to agree on the urgent need to promote rural enterprises: development agencies see rural entrepreneurship as an enormous employment potential; politicians see it as the key strategy to prevent rural unrest; farmers see it as an instrument for improving farm earnings; and women see it as an employment possibility near their homes which provides autonomy, independence and a reduced need for social support. To all these groups, however, rural entrepreneurship in India today stands as a vehicle to improve the quality of life for individuals, families and communities and to sustain a healthy economy and environment and the state of Arunachal Pradesh is not an exception to it. However, in the context of Arunachal Pradesh the level of industrialization is very poor. As per the Third SSI Census, the state has only 518 permanently registered SSI units which give employment to 1544 person. The state account for only 0.025 percent of permanently registered SSI units from the total of India.

In this paper an attempt has been made to reflect the insight of employment SSI sector based on Third SSI Census as well as to highlight the prospect of rural entrepreneurship in Small Scale Industrial (SSI) Sector in Arunachal Pradesh.