Who says economic reforms are urban-centric? The countryside has outperformed urban India in the number of enterprises it houses. Over 61% of the enterprises engaged in economic activities other than crop production and plantation are in rural India compared to just 38.7% in urban areas, according to the figures of the Fifth Economic Census released on Monday.This reinforces the trend observed in the previous (1998) census, in which rural India accounts for 58.3% of such enterprises, while 41.7% of them are in urban areas. The current census also reveals that rural India accounts for 51% of total employment.The 2005 census shows that even in average annual growth in enterprises, rural areas grew 5.53% against urban India’s 3.71%. As per the report, Tamil Nadu topped the states, with the highest number of industrial units (44.5 lakh), while Maharshtra was the largest employer with 1.18 crore jobs.AP, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, UP, WB together accounted for 50% of total enterprises in country. Mizoram clocked the highest growth in number of enterprises at 9.60%, followed by Kerala, Tripura, TN and Assam.
