Punjab, January 21: Although the world is finding itself deep into the recession, the global financial meltdown is coming up as a boon for small-scale industries in Punjab. “This slowdown in the economy has certainly proved a blessing in disguise for many small-scale units operating here. Various small-scale industries have started getting good business,” said K.S. Mahal, general secretary, Mohali Industries Association (MIA).As big units focus on cutting costs by resorting to various means, the small-scale sector is going to see its full potential. Adhish Bansal, who runs a small auto bearings manufacturing unit in the industrial town Mohali, about 10 km from Chandigarh said, “Our business has gone up by over 60 percent in the past three-four months. Many of our new clients are from Gujarat and Maharashtra. Our workers are working round the clock to complete orders.” This has led to an increase in demand and an excessive work load. With deadlines to be met, owners feel compelled to refuse orders. “Earlier, we only had clients in this industrial area and did not send our products to other states. It's different now,” said Atul Mahajan, owner of a small-scale precision engineering equipment unit in Mohali. However, there is another side to this story as the bigger units in Punjab’s Jalandhar industrial area are a suffered lot as they cannot run production on a lower scale to execute small orders, said a senior MLA official.
