Analyzing the Role of MUDRA Yojana in Fostering Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) Development in the North-Eastern States of India.

MSMEs in India play a substantial role in the growth of country's economy, contributing 30% to its GDP. The Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises or MSMEs in India employees over 11.10 crore people and facilitates in employment generation. These enterprises are involved in the production of over 6000 different items, showcasing their diverse range of economic activities. However, despite their significant contributions, Indian MSMEs face a major obstacle in the form of lack of finance. Along with the financial problem, due to many other challenges, micro-enterprises are struggling for their growth and development. To overcome the problem of financial support, the Government of India launched the MUDRA (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency) Scheme to provide financial assistance and support to MSMEs on April 8, 2015. The seven sister states are the neighboring states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripurain north eastern India. However, the region has a blessed strategic location and abundant resources with specialties of production from each state. Indeed, the people of the region can take advantage to a greater extent by utilizing the available resources and promoting the MSME. Thus, This research paper aims to critically evaluate the performance of the MUDRA scheme in India since its inception. Additionally, the paper aims to evaluate the state-wise number of accounts and disbursement amount under Shishu, Kishore and Tarun under Mudra Scheme across all 7 Northern East states of India. The study covers the period from 2015-16 to 2021-22. The analysis is based on secondary data, collected from the annual report of 2022-2023 generated by the Ministry of MSME, GOI. The application of ANOVA demonstrated a significant difference in the average number of accounts under Shishu, Kishore and Tarun under the Mudra Scheme across all 7 Northern East states of India from 2015-2016 to 2021-2022. Conversely, the analysis did not indicate a significant difference in the Average disbursement amount under Shishu, Kishore and Tarun under MUDRA Scheme across all 7 Northern East states of India during 2015- 2016 to 2021-2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]