Kerala says Year of Enterprise project fetched Rs 7,200 cr investment

Project created 256,140 jobs and overshot targets set, says state government

Kerala had created 118,509 enterprises and got investments worth Rs 7,261.54 crore this fiscal till Sunday, claiming success for targets it had set for its ‘Year of Enterprises’.

The 'Year of Enterprises' project, which aimed to create 100,000 enterprises, was judged the best practices model in a national conference on micro small and medium enterprises. Chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the conference discussed enhancing cooperative federalism and smooth relations between the centre and states.

The project had created 256,140 jobs till Sunday, said the state government. Inaugurated by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on March 30 last year, the project achieved its targets within eight months in November.

"Under this project, the government of Kerala has achieved its goal in eight months. It has created history in the country that it took a limited time span to achieve the target, infrastructure created by the government, number of women entrepreneurs," said P Rajeev, Kerala’s industries minister. The project in November achieved a target of 101,353 enterprises and created an investment of Rs 6282 crore by creating 220,500 job opportunities.

Under the project, Malappuram and Ernakulam created more than 20,000 job opportunities. Kollam, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Kozhikode and Palakkad districts created more than 15,000 job opportunities.

As per the record from the department of industries, the project created 40,622 jobs in agriculture and food processing through 16,129 enterprises with an investment of Rs 963.68 crore. It created 22,312 jobs in garments and textiles through 10,743 enterprises and an investment of Rs 474 crore. In the electrical and electronic sector, 7,454 jobs were created through 4,014 enterprises and an investment of Rs 241 crore. The service sector got 7,048 new enterprises with Rs 428 crore investment, creating 16,156 job opportunities.