On the parth of the Union government, it was claimed that the government has taken major policy measures since the early 1990's for making Indian industry, including its crucial Small Scale Sector, competitive to unleash its growth potential. One of the crucial measures have been the gradual and calibrated removal of restriction in the form of reservation of items to be exclusively produced in the Small Scale Sector.

This policy has been undertaken essentially to increase the competitiveness of industry, to facilitate adequate flow of credit, to upgrade technology so that the product produced are of world class and competitive in the global market, to enable Indian industry to compete with imports, to achieve the economies of scale and to promote creation of job opportunities.

It is another matter that the reality on the ground proved contrary to the claim. Small Scale Industires have been at the receiving end. Many became sick, many closed and many are on the path of ruination that resulted in mass scale joblessness. Big industries are growing at the cost of the small scale units.

The pace for de-reservation of the items has accelerated since 2005. Number of items de-reserved in 2005, 2006 and 2007 were 108, 180 and 212 respectively. In February 2008, 79 more items were de-reserved. Thus, from 2005 onwards Government has de-reserved 579 items and only 35 items were remaining for exclusive manufacture in the SSI Sector.

The Government has decided to further de-reserve another 14 items. With this de-reservation, only 21 items will remain in the list of the items which can be exclusively manufactured in the Small Scale Sector.

The list of 14 items de-reserved on 10th October, 2008 are Ground and processed spices other than spice oil and Oleo resin spices, PLASTIC PRODUCTS, Full PVC footwear chappals, sandals and shoes, Polythylene Films with thickness less than 0.10 mm except co-extruded film cross linked polymer films and high density molecular films, Products of polythylene films as coloured printed films & bags, Polypropylene tubular films (except biaxially oriented), INJECTION MOULDING THERMO-PLASTIC PRODUCTS: Diethyl phthalate, Diocytyl phthalate, Chlorinated paraffin wax (upto 60% Chlorine content),OTHER CHEMICALS AND CHEMICAL PRODUCTS: Barium carbonate, Zinc sulphate-other than manufactured by a primary metal producer as a by-product, GLASS AND CERAMICS: Doors, windows and ventilators metallic excluding heavy duty hollow steal doors filled with non-metallic cores, suitable for special applications like security, fire protection, sound proofing and bullet penetration resistance), Builders hardware: 36 Electrical machines, appliances & apparatus including electronics Electrical Appliances, Electric motor 1 H.P. to 10 H.P.-A.C.except - Special types, and Electrical wiring accessories other than switches, plugs and sockets.#