A Study of some key factors influencing micro enterprises’ outcome: Evidences from Sonitpur District, Assam

The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise sector of India have been playing a crucial role in its economy by absorbing a huge portion of the labor force through generation of large employment opportunities along with the element of self-employment. Among its three division, the Micro Enterprise sector has been the major contributor towards the economy of the nation in terms of employment generation. Along with this, due to the lowest level of investment requirement, these micro enterprises have become the most reasonable choice of livelihood for new entrepreneurs, women and rural people of the country. While the MSME Sector has been getting widespread consideration worldwide for its reputation of being an effective strategy to counter the unemployment issue, its performance in Assam is not that satisfactory. The growth of industries particularly in the MSME sector has not taken place to the desired extent despite the availability of resources for industrial exploitation. According to the Commissionerate of Industries & Commerce, Government of Assam, among all the districts of the state, Kamrup district has the largest concentration of MSMEs units followed by Dibrugarh, Nagaon, Sibsagar districts respectively. The scenario of MSMEs in Sonitpur district is not up to the mark in comparison to the other high performing districts. Bearing in mind these facts a detailed study on the micro enterprises of the Sonitpur District is required to attain a deeper insight about the workings of these units. This study has given its efforts to investigate the influence of some key factors like Investment in fixed assets, total variable cost, age of the entrepreneurs, education level of the entrepreneurs and experience on the business outcome of these micro enterprises of the district.