The number of items in the reserve list has changed over time. As per the revision done on March 2005, total 506 items are there in the reserve list for SSIs. The details of the items reserved for SSIs are given below:

Food and allied industries (9)
Wood and wood products (9)
Paper products (19)
Plastic products (53)
Chemicals and chemical products (7)
Natural essential oils (2)
Organic chemicals, drugs and drug intermediates (33)
Other chemicals and chemical products (67)
Glass and ceramics (27)
Mechanical engineering excluding transport equipment (137)
Electrical machines, appliances & apparatus (17)
Electronic equipments and components (1)
Transport equipment boats and truck body building (3)
Auto parts components and ancillaries and garage equipments (36)
Bicycle parts, tricycles and perambulators (41)
Miscellaneous transport equipment (4)
Sports goods (7)
Stationery items (13)
Others (21)

The Government of India under the purview of a special Parliamentary Act established The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) in April 1990. The primary objective of this bank was to ensure steady flow of funds to SSIs to ease their financial constraints.

Unfortunately all previous attempts for development, expansion and modernization of SSIs have not been of much use. However the recent measures like setting up of the Technology Development Board, the Technology Development and Modernization Fund, ISO 9000 Certification, stress on improving managerial skills are turning out to be much more fruitful in modernizing the SSIs in India.

As per the latest definition which is effective since December 21, 1999, for any industrial unit to be regarded as Small Scale Industrial unit the following condition is to be satisfied: -

Investment in fixed assets like plants and equipments either held on ownership terms on lease or on hire purchase should not be more than Rs 10 million.

However the unit in no way can be owned or controlled or ancillary of any other industrial unit.

The traditional small-scale industries clearly differ from their modern counterparts in many respects. The traditional units are highly labor consuming with their age-old machineries and conventional techniques of production resulting in poor productivity rate whereas the modern small-scale units are much more productive with less manpower and more sophisticated equipments.

Khadi and handloom, sericulture, handicrafts, village industries, coir, Bell metal are some of the traditional small-scale industries in India. The modern small industries offer a wide range of products starting from simple items like hosiery products, garments, leather products, fishing hook etc to more sophisticated items like television sets, electronics control system, various engineering products especially as ancillaries to large industrial undertakings.

Nowadays Indian small-scale industries (SSIs) are mostly modern small-scale industries. Modernization has widened the list of products offered by this industry. The items manufactured in modern Small-scale service & Business enterprises in India now include rubber products, plastic products, chemical products, glass and ceramics, mechanical engineering items, hardware, electrical items, transport equipment, electronic components and equipments, automobile parts, bicycle parts, instruments, sports goods, stationery items and clocks and watches.

Since independence the Government of India has nurtured this sector with special care with the following aims: -

To develop this sector as a major source of employment
To encourage decentralized industrial expansion
To ensure equitable distribution of income.
To mobilize capital investment and entrepreneurship skills