Role of Financial Institutions in Promoting Entrepreneurship in Assam Small Scale Sector in Assam

The movement of entrepreneurship promotion and development in the past few decades has gone a long way in North East India, particularly in the state of Assam. Both governments and various industrial promotion and support institutions are making considerable efforts to facilitate the process of emergence of new entrepreneurs for setting up enterprises in small scale sector. These efforts involved making attractive schemes for availability of finance and various other assistances including technical know how, training, sales, purchases, etc. It is believed that these efforts have made a favorable impact on the growth of these enterprises in the State as well as in the region. There are today a large number of organizations like North Eastern Industrial and Technical Consultancy Organization (NEITCO), National Institute of Small Industry Extension Training (NISIET) [till it was merged with the Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE)] and the North Eastern Industrial Consultants Ltd (NECON) who has been actively involved in entrepreneurship development activities in the region. Their efforts have been supported by the North Eastern Council (NEC) in general and financial institutions like Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Limited (NEDFi) and various commercial banks in particular. The present paper in this regard is an attempt to examine the role of financial institutions in promoting small scale and tiny industries in terms of growth of entrepreneurs, enterprises and its contribution to State Domestic Products.