SIDBI and Jocata Launch 'Sumpoorn': India's First MSME Economic Activity Index

Jocata, a digital lending transformation platform, has collaborated with SIDBI, the principal financial institution for MSME development, to launch a one-of-its kind MSME Economic Activity Index – Sumpoorn. For the first time ever, this MSME specific high frequency indicator will capture the state of India’s growth engine, it’s MSMEs, that contribute more than a quarter of India’s overall Gross Value Added (GVA) and more than 40% of India’s total exports.

The currently available macro indices capture business expectations and rely on opinion or survey-based data. Jocata Sumpoorn aims to bridge this gap and allows for deeper interpretation of the changes in the MSME sales activity. It is a relative amplitude adjusted composite diffusion index developed using consent-led and anonymized monthly sales data reflected in official GSTN returns of more than 50,000 credit-seeking MSMEs over time. A team of credit experts, data scientists and senior economists have built and tracked the Index over the past four years ensuring its ability to accurately represent the MSME economy and capture the impact of macroeconomic conditions.

Mr. Sivasubramanian Ramann, Chairman & Managing Director at SIDBI said, “The significance of the MSME sector for the Indian economy is a well acknowledged fact. However, data paucity on the MSME sector often becomes a challenge for industry members and policymakers.

We at SIDBI have been constantly engaged for the development of the sector and have been partnering with institutions to bridge the information asymmetry to enable informed decision-making by stakeholders. It is in this spirit we have created ‘Sumpoorn’ with Jocata, that carries an index measuring economic activity of the MSMEs leveraging the GST data.

The underlying authentic data of GST provides credibility to the Index. With time, the same can be expanded to include more dimensions. I hope the Index shall be of value to the readers and provide a rich perspective on the prevalent trends of the MSME sector.”

Mr. Prashant Muddu, Managing Director & CEO at Jocata said, “We are incredibly excited to launch Jocata Sumpoorn in association with SIDBI, and bring to life our shared vision of inclusion & development of MSMEs, the lifeblood of the Indian economy. 

Jocata Sumpoorn is a fact-based measure of MSME sales performance representative of the latest economic activity. We believe it will address the MSME knowledge gap and empower financial institutions, policymakers, economists and researchers to strategize credit flow and create tailored policies for the sustainable growth of MSMEs across the country. To provide in-depth and granular MSME insights, we are further developing sub-indices that will identify growth opportunities, provide early warning signals and channelize capital allocation to different sectors (as classified under GST by HSN) and clusters across geographies.”

Jocata has successfully enabled 50+ large financial institutions in India, ASEAN and Middle East embark on their digital transformation journeys. Their MSME inclusion approach can be traced back to 2021 when they launched India’s first AI/ML based score (SME DNA) that provides a deep understanding of an entity’s performance across business cycles powering near-instant credit decisioning and faster disbursals.