The objective of this paper is to analyze the various emerging aspects of Small Scale Industries (SSIs) in the East Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya, a state located in the Northeastern region of India. The demography of this district is such that it is dominated by Khasi tribes. This district has the highest number of SSIs and is the most economically active district among all the seven districts of Meghalaya. This study is based on primary industrial field survey conducted during 2004-05. It reveals that most of the SSIs are adopting direct selling marketing strategy rather than indirect selling strategy and produce the product mainly to cater the local market demand. A majority of entrepreneurs are educated and first generation tribal entrepreneurs. More than one fourth of them are women entrepreneurs. Yet the SSIs are at the preliminary developing stage in the district and yet to make a significant contribution to the growth of the state economy in a significant way. It is recommended to develop additional industries in the district, in particular, and the state in general, which leads to economies of scale and technical advantage to take the state economy on rapid growth trajectories.

The Small Scale Industries (SSIs) have a merit of being agents that act as a nursery for entrepreneurship and facilitate mobilization of local resources and skills, which might have otherwise remained unitized. The Small Scale Industrial (SSI) sector has been considered as a powerful instrument for realizing the twin objectives of achieving `Accelerated Industrial Growth' and creating `Productive Employment Opportunities' in an economy. This sector also plays an important role as producers of consumer goods and absorbers of surplus labor thereby addressing the problems of poverty and unemployment. In the recent years, the SSI sector has emerged as a dynamic and vibrant sector of the Indian economy displaying its phenomenal growth in the varied fields of production, employment, and dispersed development, in general, and exports, in particular. Realizing the importance of SSIs, this paper analyzes the development of this sector in East Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya. The demography of this district is such that it is dominated by Khasi tribes. This district has the highest number of SSIs and is the most economically active district among all the seven districts of Meghalaya. The objective of this paper is to analyze the entrepreneurship development in the emerging SSI sector in a tribal dominated economy of East Khasi Hills District of Meghalaya. Further, an attempt has also been made to study the process of marketing management of SSIs in the economy.

This paper discusses the literature review, the research questions and gaps, methodology and data, the economy of Meghalaya and its SSIs, especially SSIs in East Khasi Hills District, and marketing management and entrepreneurship development.