Tamil Nadu, a front-ranking State in the sector of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), is witnessing a steady growth of entrepreneurs from the Scheduled Castes.
Though the number of the SC entrepreneurs is not proportionate to the share of the community in the population, it is growing. In fact, as per the 4th All India Census of MSMEs (registered sector) census undertaken in 2006-07 and published in 2011, the State had the highest number of SC-owned enterprises with 18,120, about 15.24% of such units at the all-India level. (When the Udyog Aadhaar Memorandum system of registration of enterprises came to an end in June 2020, the number of SC-owned enterprises went up to 56,047).
