| Publication |
2006.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Small-scale industries (SSIs) have been important for India's economic development due to their contribution to production, employment, exports, and investments in the private sector. National- and state-level economic reforms since July 1991, and India's commitments to honouring the disciplines under World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements since January 1995, have added new policies and programmes for promotion, regulation and development of India's SSIs. Full awareness of the policies and programmes for all the SSIs has been an essential requirement to exploit the opportunities and meet with challenges under these policy regimes. In the light of this requirement, this article analyses the nature and extent of awareness of select policies and programmes under the new policy regimes in India, based on a case study (or sample survey in 2001-2) of 373 manufacturing SSIs in Karnataka State (India). The empirical results: (1) offer evidence for spatial variations in the awareness by policies and programmes and by sector-specific WTO agreements; and (2) imply a policy need for effective awareness programmes as a precondition for equalizing the benefits of new policy regimes for all the SSIs. The results and implications of this case study are of relevance for design and implementation of current and future awareness policies for the SSIs at the national and sub-national levels in India as well as in other developing countries.
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