Rural Businesses Are Getting Bigger and Better

The role of village and cottage industries in a developing country

like India cannot be over emphasized. Developing countries are

characterized as labor abundant and capital scarce. India is no

exception to this phenomenon and is undergoing an acute

unemployment syndrome. Large industries with their stress on latest

technical know-how requiring enormous capital investment cannot

absorb all the growing number of unemployed masses in the country.

On the other hand, village and cottage crafts which employ labor

intensive techniques of manufacture can provide immense

employment opportunities to the masses. With any given investment,

employment possibilities would be many times greater in rural

industries than those in large scale industrial sector. The rural

industries occupy a premiere position of eminence in the industrial

structure of the Indian economy. They provide employment

opportunities to a large section of working force and contribute

significantly towards the manufacture and export of goods. The rural

industrial sector stands next only to agriculture in terms of

employment; on value addition its share is about fifty percent of the

total value of goods produced in the manufacturing sector and in the

matter of exports, its share is more than one third of the total exports

made by the country.
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