The government has removed 14 more products from the list of items that can be exclusively manufactured by the small scale industries, pruning the SSI list to just 21.

The de-reservation would facilitate technology upgradation and improve industry competitiveness, a government press release said.

The government has been constantly reviewing major policy measures since the early 1990's for making Indian industry, including its crucial small scale sector, competitive to unleash its growth potential, the press release said.  

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, the release pointed out.

The policy change will facilitate adequate flow of credit and allow technology upgradation, so that the products produced are of world class and competitive in the global market, the release said.

This in turn will enable industry achieve economies of scale and promote job creation, the release added.

The pace for de-reservation of the items has accelerated since 2005. the 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. Beginning 2005 the government has de-reserved 579 items and only 35 items were remaining for exclusive manufacture in the SSI sector until now.

The list of 14 items de-reserved from the SSI list on 10 October include: food and allied items like Ground and processed spices other than spice oil and oleo resin spices; plastic products like full PVC footwear chappals, sandals and shoes; polyethylene films with thickness less than 0.10 mm except co-extruded film cross linked polymer films and high density molecular films, products of polyethylene films as coloured printed films & bags, polypropylene tubular films (except biaxially oriented); injection moulding thermoplastic products like diethyl phthalate, diocytyl phthalate, chlorinated paraffin wax (up to 60 per cent chlorine content); chemicals and chemical products like barium carbonate, zinc sulphate - other than manufactured by a primary metal producer as a by-product; glass and ceramic products like 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, electrical machines, appliances and 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.                                            

The latest de-reservation prunes the list of items for exclusive SSI production to just 21.