Kolkata, Jan 15 (KNN) West Bengal (WB) has topped among all the states in the country in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector with more than 135.52 lakh people getting employed in at least 88.67 lakh units in the state.

All India Trinamool Congress on Thursday took to the micro-blogging site twitter and said ''Under the guidance of Hon'ble CM @MamataOfficial, WB has emerged as one of the TOP performers in the MSME Sector, with 88L+ MSME units & employing 135L+ people!.''

The data also showed that Bengal is much ahead leaving behind states including Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. Only 61.16 lakh people are employed in the MSME sector in Gujarat where there are 33.16 lakh MSME units. Similarly, 26.74 lakh and 34.46 lakh MSME units are operating in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar respectively. Bihar is providing employment to 53.07 lakh people and Madhya Pradesh is providing the same to 48.8 lakh people in the MSME sector.

Reportedly, MSME played a crucial role in Bengal's GSDP that has gone up by 2.7 times since 2011. The revenue deficit to GSDP in the same time period has gone down to 1.57.

Bengal's MSME sector played a crucial role at the time of COVID-19 by continuously manufacturing PPE kits and masks for frontline workers amidst lockdown.