Liberalisation and Small Industry-Need for New Growth Strategy in Kerala

The growth of small industry besides resulting in employment-intensive industrialisation and wider dispersal of economic activities ensures the maximum exploitation of latent resources, both human and material in the region. It is necessary, therefore, to design strategies and implement policies and programmes in the states for the growth of small industry in conformity with the ongoing economic reforms. A prerequisite for this exercise is a review of growth performance of the sector This article reports a survey of small industry in Kerala and compares it with the performance of the sector in other major states and with the all-India average.