In India, MSMEs have a pivotal role to play in the overall growth of industrial economy. In recent years, the MSME sector has consistently registered higher growth rate compared to the overall industrial sector. In India MSMEs contribute nearly 45% to manufacturing and about 40% to the Indian export sector. Their contribution to the Indian GDP is 8% and the sector has registered growth rate of 10.8% .Indian MSMEs have moved up the value chain from manufacture of simple goods to manufacture of sophisticated products. In line with the overall growth in Indian economy, MSMEs have entered the services sector as well. Associated with this high growth rates, MSMEs in India are also facing a number of problems like sub-optimal scale of operation, technological obsolescence, supply chain inefficiencies, increasing domestic and global competition, fund shortages, change in manufacturing strategies and turbulent and uncertain market scenario. To survive with such issues and compete with large and global enterprises, MSMEs need to adopt innovations as an important approach in realizing the developed economy. Here is an attempt to show how innovation helps in boosting MSMEs competitiveness.

Prof. Emeritus R.Srinivasan works at the Dept. of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Science(IISc), Bengaluru. He has more than 35 years of academic experience. Dr. C.P.Lohith is a Research Associate under Prof. R.Srinivasan in DOMS, IISc and is also working as Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering Dept. at SIT, Tumakuru.