Small businesses are a source of innovation, growth and job creation. SMEs make up 95 per cent of all manufacturing units in India and employ 45 per cent of the country's total labor force. The percentage of total Punjab state SSI is 3.58, of which 10.6 percent of production units are located in rural areas. The number of
ancillary units for SSIs is 1,32,313 (2.98%), and the SSI sector provides jobs for approximately 2,49,32,763 individuals. Out of the total SSIs in Punjab, some of the major sectors of manufacturing output are food products (14%), textile industries (21.74%), fabricated metal products (8.2%), machinery and equipment (8.4%), chemical products (2.2%), paper products (0.8%), leather products (5.5%), furniture (7.7%), rubber and plastic products (1.78%) and motor vehicles (1.3%). In the 12th Five-Year Plan, the state government allocated US$ 27.95 million to upgrade the industrial infrastructure and build a new one. In the 2017-2018 budget, the government also mentioned plans to build 16 separate industrial parks. The government has scheduled US$ 437.7 million in investment spending, including the promotion and defense of small-scale units; the construction of mega-projects, SEZs and industrial clusters; the development of the IT and knowledge-based, agro-based and food processing industries. This book would, however, focus on the various problems and prospects of small-scale industry in Punjab with major objectives which are to study the growth of small-scale industry in Punjab, financial difficulties faced by the small-scale industry in Punjab and to study the various future prospects of the small-scale industry in Punjab. The period of this research work varies from post- liberalization i.e., 1991 till date. The data is collected from two types of sources i.e., secondary sources as well as primary sources. A questionnaire was designed to collect the data from the various entrepreneurs. The sample size of 600 was taken for analysis. 10 major industries were chosen which included Textile, Chemical Products, Paper Industry, Steel re-rolling units, Sports industry, Rice mills, Bicycle and cycle parts, Tractor Parts, Cotton Ginning and Processing units and Agriculture Implements.