Udyam Registration Portal Crosses 1.5-Crore Milestone: Boosting MSME Growth in India.
The MSME sector in India has been the backbone of the country’s economy, accounting for a significant portion of GDP and providing employment to millions of people. However, the sector has been facing challenges in recent years due to various reasons, including lack of formalization, inadequate access to credit, and outdated technology.
To address these challenges, the Indian government launched the MSME registration portal Udyam in July 2020 with the aim of formalizing the sector and providing easy access to credit and other government schemes. And recently, the portal has crossed a significant milestone – the registration count on the portal has crossed the 1.5-crore mark.
Reclassification of MSMEs post-Covid pandemic.
The Covid-19 pandemic was having a devastating effect on the MSME sector at the time the Udyam registration system was launched. The government had announced several measures to support the sector, including the reclassification of MSMEs based on their turnover and investment.
The reclassification was aimed at providing better incentives and support to MSMEs based on their size and scale of operations. And the launch of the Udyam registration portal was a key component of this effort, as it would enable MSMEs to register themselves under the new classification and access the benefits and schemes announced by the government.
The Udyam MSME registration system run by the MSME ministry has topped 1.5 billion registrations after more than 2.5 years and the categorization of MSMEs in response to the Covid outbreak.
50 lakh registrations in 15 months.
The Udyam registration portal was launched on July 1, 2020. After the portal was launched, the first 50 lakh registrations came in roughly 15 months later. The following 50 lakhs arrived in the following 11 months, and the total number of registrations reached one crore in August of last year. The timeframe was further reduced for the ensuing 50 lakh registrations to roughly seven months.
Subsequent 50 lakh registrations in seven months.
The growth in registrations has been impressive, with the subsequent 50 lakh registrations coming in around seven months. This is a testament to the success of the Udyam portal in reaching out to MSMEs and enabling them to register themselves easily and avail themselves of the benefits announced by the government.
The MSME sector consists of about 6.3 crore units in the country, 99 per cent of which are micro. Hence the increase in registrations is significant because Udyam is one of the key measures done by the MSME ministry post-pandemic to formalize the informal units in the MSME sector.
“We are striving to integrate the tiniest of the micro firms into the formal framework,” MSME Ministry Secretary BB Swain had stated, underlining the role of the Udyam platform during the MSME Business Colloquium organized by FE Aspire last year.
To bring micro businesses into the legal fold, which are connected to the financial environment due to digital transactions but are not GST registered, the ministry actually introduced a unique Udyam Assist Platform (UAP) in January of this year. Banks use UAP to transmit the pertinent data about their micro business customers, which UAP then verifies and registers on the Udyam portal.
13.3 lakh micro units had been registered via UAP on the Udyam portal as of March 19. With the UAP registrations, there are now 1.63 crores Udyam registrations and 10.81 crore people employed overall. Only 40,667 medium-sized businesses made up the majority of the registrations (1.57 crore micro units, 4.52 lakh small businesses, and 1.57 crore micro units).
The Udyog Aadhaar Memorandum (UAM) was replaced by the Udyam portal in 2020. Only 1.02 crore micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) were registered by UAM between September 2015 and June 30, 2020, according to the MSME ministry’s annual report for 2020-21.
According to information provided by the Minister of State for MSMEs, Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma, in a written reply in Rajya Sabha in December of last year, 55,603 Udyam-registered MSMEs had withdrawn or cancelled their registrations as of December 14 since the launch of the platform.
According to earlier data published in July of last year, the reasons given for withdrawal or cancellation included business closures, ownership changes, and more.
Significance of the Udyam registration portal.
The Udyam registration portal is among the flagship initiatives undertaken by the MSME ministry post-pandemic to formalize the informal units in the MSME sector. The MSME sector comprises around 6.3 crore units in the country, 99% of which are micro-enterprises.
Formalization of the sector is critical for its growth and development, as it would enable MSMEs to access credit, technology, and other support from the government and financial institutions. The Udyam registration portal is a key tool in this effort, as it enables MSMEs to register themselves easily and access the benefits announced by the government.
The growth in registrations on the Udyam registration portal is a positive development for the MSME sector in India. It is a testament to the success of the government’s efforts to formalize the sector and provide easy access to credit and other schemes.
There is still a long way to go, though, as the MSME sector continues to struggle with issues, including poor finance availability and antiquated technologies. The government must continue its efforts to support the sector and enable its growth and development.
edited and proofread by nikita sharma
