English

Abstract

  Small scale industries have been considered as the engine of economic growth and promotion of equitable development. The major advantage of the sector is its employment potential at low capital cost. The labour intensity of the small scale industry (SSI) sector is much higher than that of the large enterprises. The role of small industries in the economic and social development of the country is well established. The sector is a nursery of entrepreneurship, often driven by individual creativity and innovation. The paper concludes that besides the growth potential of the sector and its critical role in employment generation of Jammu and Kashmir (J & K) state. It also contributes to the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) that is, it contributes 12.55% to GSDP. The study is significant in the sense that the state of Jammu and Kashmir is relatively a backward region of the country both economically and educationally and thus the paper presented a good setting for investigation to know about what is the performance of SSIs in J & K and how some sort of self-employment and income have generated SSIs and what are the challenges that these industries face.   Key words: Small scale industry, employment, capacity building, labour intensity and strategy,growth and performance.