Walk through Chandigarh’s Sector 17 plaza, the grain market in Sector 26, the auto parts cluster in Manimajra, the garment units in the Industrial Area Phase 1 and 2, or the dozens of neighbourhood repair shops, tailors, caterers, and IT services firms scattered across the city and you are looking at Chandigarh’s real economy. Much of it is invisible to the government.
Of the estimated 95,000-plus small businesses operating in and around the city, only 65,164 are formally registered on the Government of India’s Udyam portal. The rest, an estimated 30,000 enterprises, operate without any official recognition, which means they cannot access institutional bank credit, cannot apply for government schemes, and have no formal standing when they need help. The Chandigarh Department of Industries has now launched a city-wide drive to change that.
What is happening
The Department of Industries, Chandigarh Administration, has launched a drive under the Raising and Accelerating MSME Performance (RAMP) Programme, a flagship central government initiative backed by a World Bank credit of Rs 43.07 crore, to identify and register 30,000 unregistered MSMEs across the city.
Trained survey teams, deployed by Forvis Mazars LLP as the implementing agency, will conduct door-to-door field visits across Chandigarh’s industrial areas, commercial markets and business clusters. They will identify unregistered enterprises and provide free, on-the-spot facilitation for Udyam Registration, the Government of India’s official MSME recognition system. No fee. No office visit. No paperwork burden on the owner.
What is Udyam registration, why does it matter
Udyam Registration is a free, paperless, self-declaration-based system launched by the Ministry of MSME in 2020, replacing the earlier Udyog Aadhaar. It classifies businesses into three categories based on investment in plant and machinery and annual turnover:
Micro enterprise: Investment up to Rs 2.5 crore; turnover up to Rs 10 crore
Small enterprise: Investment up to Rs 25 crore; turnover up to Rs 100 crore
Medium enterprise: Investment up to Rs 125 crore; turnover up to Rs 500 crore
Registration takes minutes online, requires only an Aadhaar number and PAN, and generates a unique Udyam Registration Number with a permanent certificate. It is the gateway to virtually every government scheme designed for small businesses.
Without it, a business legally does not exist in the eyes of the government, however old, however large, however many people it employs.
Who should be registering
Any enterprise involved in manufacturing goods, providing services, or engaged in trading can register as an MSME. This includes:
Manufacturing units in Industrial Area Phase 1, Phase 2, and the Small Industries Area
Service providers, IT firms, diagnostic labs, hotels, repair services, logistics companies
Traders, wholesale, retail, distributors, in commercial markets across the city
Home-based micro enterprises and self-employed artisans
Food processing units, garment manufacturers, printing presses
Chandigarh’s 65,164 registered units are spread across manufacturing (10,028), services (30,221) and trading (24,951). The 30,000 targeted by this drive are predominantly in services and trading, the most undercounted and underserved segments.
Why thousands of businesses have stayed unregistered
The reasons are largely practical, not intentional. Many small business owners, especially in the trading and services sectors, are simply unaware that Udyam Registration exists or that it is free. Others assume that registration invites inspection, taxation or compliance burdens. Some have been in business for decades under older registration systems and do not know they need to migrate. A significant number in low-income clusters lack the digital literacy to navigate an online portal on their own.
This is precisely why the survey teams are going to them, rather than waiting for them to come to a government office.
What formalisation unlocks: The schemes
Once registered, an enterprise gains legal recognition and access to a suite of government schemes from which it was previously shut out:
Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY): Provides collateral-free loans up to Rs 20 lakh, classified as Shishu (up to Rs 50,000), Kishore (Rs 50,001 to Rs 5 lakh) and Tarun (Rs 5 lakh to Rs 20 lakh), for income-generating activities in manufacturing, trading and services. Since its launch, over 52 crore loans worth more than Rs 30 lakh crore have been disbursed nationally.
Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE): Provides collateral-free credit guarantees for loans up to Rs 5 crore, enabling small businesses to borrow from banks without pledging property. This is a critical lifeline for micro enterprises that have no assets to offer as security.
Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP): A credit-linked subsidy scheme that provides up to 35 per cent government subsidy on project cost for setting up new micro enterprises in manufacturing (up to Rs 50 lakh project cost) and services/trading (up to Rs 20 lakh). It directly targets employment creation.
Delayed Payment Protection: Under the MSME Development Act, registered MSMEs are entitled to payment within 45 days of supplying goods or services. If a buyer delays beyond this, they are liable to pay compound interest at three times the RBI’s bank rate. Chandigarh’s MSME Facilitation Council received 115 such cases in 2025-26 and resolved 105, but only registered enterprises can approach this forum.
ZED and LEAN Certification Incentives: The Department of Industries is set to notify an incentive scheme for Zero Defect Zero Effect and LEAN manufacturing certification, benefits that will flow only to Udyam-registered units.
PM Vishwakarma: Traditional artisans and craftspeople, weavers, cobblers, carpenters, goldsmiths, potters and others, with Udyam registration get priority access to skills training, credit at concessional rates, and direct onboarding on digital commerce platforms. Seventy-six Chandigarh artisans have already received loans under the scheme.
What it means for workers
Chandigarh’s 65,164 registered MSMEs already employ 4.69 lakh people, nearly half the city’s working population. The 30,000 unregistered units almost certainly employ several lakh more, largely in informal arrangements with no job security, no ESI cover, no PF contributions, and no recourse if a dispute arises.
Formalisation of these enterprises changes the equation. When a business is registered, it becomes visible to labour enforcement agencies, eligible for government skilling programmes, and capable of entering formal supply chains that require vendor registration. Workers in formally registered enterprises are more likely to receive documented wages, statutory benefits, and social security cover. For the lakhs of daily-wage workers, helpers, and contractual staff who depend on Chandigarh’s small business economy, formalisation of their employers is the first step toward formalisation of their own employment.
What the city gets
From a governance standpoint, every unregistered MSME is a data blind spot. The administration cannot plan credit delivery, infrastructure, skill training, or market linkage programmes for enterprises it cannot see. The RAMP drive is, in effect, a census of Chandigarh’s real economic base, one that will give planners a far more accurate picture of where the city’s businesses are, what sectors they operate in, how many people they employ, and what they need.
A larger formal MSME base also improves Chandigarh’s standing on the Centre’s Business Reform Action Plan assessments and strengthens the city’s case for greater RAMP programme funding in future tranches.
What bigger picture looks like
The formalisation drive does not stand alone. It is one part of a layered reform agenda that the Department of Industries has been executing through 2025-26:
The Chandigarh Startup Policy 2025, with a dedicated Rs 10-crore annual budget, is building an ecosystem for early-stage businesses at the other end of the spectrum. A rental subsidy scheme and an interest subvention scheme for MSMEs are being notified. The Administration has proposed to extend Punjab’s Right to Business Act to Chandigarh, which will give businesses a statutory right to time-bound clearances, automatic deemed approvals if deadlines are missed, and protection from unannounced inspections. A dedicated Chandigarh Bureau of Enterprise and Investment is being set up as a single-window for all business-related approvals and grievances.
Taken together, these measures sketch out a future where a small business in Chandigarh can register online in minutes, get a deemed approval for its premises without chasing multiple departments, borrow against a government credit guarantee without pledging its owner’s house, sell on digital platforms, and resolve payment disputes through a legal forum, all from within a single ecosystem.
What businesses, owners need to do now
For any business owner in Chandigarh who has not yet registered on Udyam, the survey teams offer the simplest possible entry point, registration happens at your doorstep, for free, with assistance. Those who cannot wait for a survey visit can register directly at udyamregistration.gov.in using only an Aadhaar number and PAN. The process takes under 15 minutes and generates an instant certificate.
Existing registered businesses, particularly those still on the older Udyog Aadhaar system, should migrate to the Udyam portal to ensure continuity of benefits.
Those seeking further information or assistance can contact the Department of Industries, Chandigarh Administration, directly.
What comes next
Speaking to The Tribune, Deputy Commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav, who also holds charge as Secretary Industries, said, “The goal is not just registration numbers. Every enterprise we formalise is a business that can now access credit, compete in formal markets and grow. That is what drives employment and that is what drives the city’s economy.”
The RAMP programme runs through March 2027. The current drive, targeting 30,000 units, will be the largest single outreach exercise the Department of Industries has undertaken. Its success, or shortfall, will directly shape how Chandigarh allocates its remaining RAMP resources and how aggressively it pursues the next phase of MSME policy.
For a city of Chandigarh’s size, resources and institutional capacity, the gap between 65,164 registered enterprises and the true size of its small business economy represents both a policy failure of the past and an opportunity for the future. The drive that has just been launched is an attempt to close that gap, one doorstep registration at a time.
