The government sees the total employment in village industries touching over 1 crore (10 million) by the end of current financial year from nearly 93 lakh in the previous fiscal.
"The total cumulative employment in the khadi and village industries sector is estimated to have increased to 102.35 lakh by the end of March 2009 as against 99.21 lakh by the end March 2008," says the annual report of Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises for 2008-09.
While the village industries are projected to have 100.25 lakh jobs by end of 2009-10, the khadi sector is estimated to have 10 lakh jobs during the period, the report said.
The report is also bullish on the sales of products from rural industries. Merchandise sales from village industries are expected to increase by 10 per cent to Rs 22,344 crore in the fiscal.
Sales from khadi industries are estimated to increase to Rs 910 crore in 2009-10 from Rs 855 crore in the last fiscal.
It is estimated that the MSME sector employs about 4.2 crore people in over 1.3 crore units throughout the country.
The sector accounts about 45 per cent of the manufacturing output and 40 per cent of the total exports of the country.
To tide over the crisis of falling exports from the micro, small and medium enterprises sector, the government in the Budget 2009 announced measures like extension of interest subsidy on pre-shipment credit for seven sectors including handlooms, handicrafts, and the small and medium exporters.
(1 lakh = 100,000; 10 lakh = 1 million; 1 crore = 10 million; 100 crore = 1 billion)
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