ABSTRACT
In recent years, one has observed a significant U-turn in public policy. Europe and America, which traditionally considered small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as just a passive phase in industrialization, have now accepted it as a permanent reality. Interestingly, many developing countries that are eager to embrace investment from industrialized countries have started considering SMEs as having only an incidental role, that is, as only a link in the global value chain. Public policy in many developing countries, as in India, has become less emphatic on the social objectives of SMEs, mainly employment generation and balanced regional development. This kind of a shift in emphasis has a cumulative effect on the policy architecture, which leads to some taboos and fashionables in the area.
