Paper Details

Name: Lakhveer Singh, Navkiranjit Kaur Dhaliwal
Country: India

Year: 2025
Volume: Volume-12, Issue-1 Year: 2025 (Jan-June)
Page Number: 49-60
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15694989

India faces a major challenge of unemployment, particularly disguised unemployment in rural areas where agriculture dominates livelihoods. To address this and promote non-agricultural employment through skill development and digitized training, the Government of India launched the “Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries” (SFURTI) under the Ministry of MSME in 2005. The scheme aims to revitalize traditional industries by organizing artisans into clusters, enhancing their competitiveness, and ensuring long-term sustainability. Industrial clusters are seen as effective tools for regional economic growth and poverty reduction. The cluster approach focuses on networks of enterprises rather than isolated units, enabling knowledge transfer, skill development, innovation, and empowerment of local communities, including marginalized caste groups. India’s traditional industries, rich in diversity and heritage, are passed down through generations and hold significant cultural and economic value. This research studies the role of SFURTI in transforming traditional enterprises, evaluates its performance, examines the benefits offered, and highlights key challenges in its implementation.
Keywords: Disguised unemployment, Traditional Industries, SFURTI, Clusters, Economic growth.