The Hindu : National : Rural enterprises growing faster

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 13, 2006

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National

Rural enterprises growing faster

Special Correspondent

Employment rate high in J&K: Economic Census 2005

NEW DELHI: The "Economic Census 2005" says that the 61.3 per cent of the country's enterprises in the rural areas are growing faster than those in the urban areas. The top three States among the best five where the enterprises are growing rapidly are in the northeast.

The survey, released here on Monday by Minister for Statistics and Implementation G.K.Vasan, says that Jammu and Kashmir leads in employment in industrial units despite15 years of insurgency. Employment here is growing at a rate of 6.82 per cent annually.

Of 421 lakh enterprises, 258.1 lakh (61.3 per cent) are in the rural areas while the remaining 163.1 lakh (38.7 per cent) are in towns and cities. Tamil Nadu has the largest -- 44.4 lakh (10.56 per cent of the total enterprises), followed by Maharashtra, with 43.7 lakh (10.93 per cent) enterprises in terms of number.

The order reverses in the case of employment; Maharashtra employs 118 lakh people (11.95 per cent) among a total of 989.7 lakh employed. It is followed by Tamil Nadu where 9.89 lakh (9.97 per cent) people are employed in the enterprises.

In the enterprises sector, West Bengal follows, with the number of units being 428.5 lakh (10.17 per cent), followed by Andhra Pradesh 402.3 lakh (9.55 per cent); and Uttar Pradesh has 401.5 lakh (9.53 per cent).

The best five States are Mizoram (9.6 per cent), Kerala (8.93 per cent), Tripura (8.79 per cent), Tamil Nadu (8.49 per cent) and Assam (6.57 per cent.)

The Census says that of the total enterprises, 61 per cent are located in the rural areas and the remaining in the urban areas.

The survey suggests that enterprises have grown at the rate of 4.8 per cent a year in 1988-2005, against 2.36 per cent in the previous Census. On the other hand, employment has grown at the rate of 2.5 per cent per annum in the past seven years, compared to 1.7 per cent in the last Census period.

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