THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) IN THE MINISTRY OF SMALL SCALE INDUSTRIES AND AGRO AND RURAL INDUSTRIES (SMT. VASUNDHARA RAJE)
(a) & (b): As per the data compiled by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from the Scheduled Commercial Banks, the total number of sick Small Scale Industrial (SSI) Units in March 1997, 1998 and 1999 are as under:-
As at the end of Total number of Sick SSI Units
March, 1997 2,35,032 March, 1998 2,21,536 March, 1999 3,06,221 (P) (P) - Provisional
(c) & (d): The total number of units functioning and number of employees working therein during 1996-97, 1997-98 and 1998-99 are as under:-
Year Number of Units (lakh numbers) Employment (lakh numbers)
1996-97 28.57 160.00 1997-98 30.14 167.20 1998-99 (P) 31.21 171.58 (Pj)
(P) - Provisional; (Pj) - Projected.
(e) & (f): Incidence of sickness in the SSI sector is due to various factors such as inadequacy of credit, marketing problems, managerial inadequacies, etc. The extent of sickness in terms of percentage to total SSI units as on 31st March, 1999 (Provisional) works out to 9.8%. The Government is fully seized of the incidence of industrial sickness amongst SSI units and has taken various measures to facilitate timely identification and rehabilitation of potentially viable sick industries, which inter-alia, includes institutional mechanism in the form of State Level Inter-Institutional Committee, special rehabilitation cells in banks and State Financial Institutions and, elaborate guidelines issued by RBI for extending rehabilitation assistance to eligible units.
