The non-farm unorganised sector, the creator of the largest number of jobs in India, not only stagnated in respect of productive activities, but it actually shrank in size.

Policy shocks have caused massive and avoidable damage to the unorganised sector and MSMEs.

Simply registering on a portal cannot be seen as formalising the MSMEs, nor does it ensure that the sector is captured in the policy framework.

Despite their significance, the MSMEs’ challenges have only increased for three reasons: demonetisation, followed by some degree of forced ‘formalisation’ (of sorts) due to GST, and then an ill-planned lockdown of unnecessarily harsh strictness.