PANAJI
Nearly one in every three Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) in Goa is owned by a woman entrepreneur, statistics furnished in parliament by Union Minister of State for MSMEs Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma has revealed.
Of the total registered micro, small and medium enterprises in Goa, 28.69 per cent are owned by women. Back in March this year, the proportion of MSMEs owned by women was 22.09 per cent, a clear rise of over six percentage points over nine months.
Also, the employment rate of women in MSMEs is 22.94 per cent, according to the reply furnished by Verma in the Rajya Sabha. He said, the sector has employed 2.63 lakh people in Goa of which just 60,000-odd were women.
Meanwhile, 20,947 employees in 542 establishments in Goa benefited from the Centre's Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana, according to information furnished by Union Minister of State for Labour and Welfare Rameshwar Teli in the Lok Sabha.
Between October 2020 to December 2023, 20,947 employees in 542 establishments in Goa got the benefit, Teli said.
Maharashtra was the State with the highest number of employee beneficiaries with 22,447 establishments and 9,78,812 employees of these companies benefitting. Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka ranked in that order after Maharashtra.
The Centre launched the scheme after the Covid-19 pandemic badly affected the industrial sector to support workers and the related companies and establishments.
Initially, the scheme was intended to generate more employment in the country but was modified due to the pandemic and implemented through the Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO).
Under the scheme, employees with less than Rs 15,000 monthly salaries and who are members of 'EPFO' but lost their jobs due to the pandemic between May 1, 2020 and September 30 2020, were eligible for the benefits wherein the Central government deposited the 24 per cent 'PF' contribution -- 12 percent each of both the company and the employee sides -- where the companies had a worker strength of less than 1,000.
In companies with a worker strength of more than 1,000 the Centre deposited only the 12 per cent of the employee's share of the PF contribution.
