Around 41% of OBC owned units are located in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
Around 41% of OBC owned units are located in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
Other backward classes (OBC) own almost 30% of the country’s micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
As of March 31, 2022, the number of MSMEs owning OBCs was 23.31 lakh units out of a total of about 80.16 lakh units in the country. Around 41% of OBC-owned units are located in three states – Tamil Nadu (14.5%), Maharashtra (14.4%) and Rajasthan (12.4%), according to a review of data provided by the Office of the MSME Development data commissioner exclusively Peppystores. The data was compiled based on the units registered with the authorities via the Udyam portal.
According to the distribution by social class, the General category has the highest proportion of MSME units at 61.8%. In absolute terms, 49.56 lakh units belong to this category. Up to 6.8% of the units – about 5.43 lakh – are owned by the Scheduled Castes, while the Scheduled Tribes operate about 1.68 lakh units with a 2.1% share. Just over 18,000 units fall under the Unidentified category.
According to a June 2020 Communication from the Union Department for MSMEs, a micro-enterprise was defined as one where the investment in plant and machinery or equipment does not exceed £1 billion and the turnover does not exceed £5 billion; a small business as one where the investment in plant and machinery or equipment does not exceed £10 million and the turnover does not exceed £50 million; and a medium-sized enterprise as one where investment in plant and machinery or equipment does not exceed ₹50 crore and turnover does not exceed 250 crore.
In terms of OBC-owned companies, Tamil Nadu has the highest number of such units at 3,37,016, of which 3,23,441 units fall under micro-enterprises; 12,778 among small businesses; and 797 among medium-sized companies.
Maharashtra closely follows the southern state with 3,35,920 and its breakdown is: 3,31,770 micro-enterprises; 3,944 small businesses and 206 medium-sized businesses.
The northwestern state of Rajasthan ranks third with 2,89,857 units owned by the OBCs. It has about 2.86 lakh micro-entities: 3,585 small businesses and 150 medium-sized businesses.
Fourth, fifth and sixth places go to the northern states of Uttar Pradesh (about 2.38 lakh units); Bihar (1.71 lakhs); and Madhya Pradesh (1.56 lakhs).
In Tamil Nadu, 39.4% of the total of about 8.56 lakh units belong to the OBCs, which is about 10 percentage points higher than the all-India average of 29%. But in Maharashtra it is only about 20.6%, while in Rajasthan the proportion is just under 46%.
