What initiative was launched by SIDBI in 2018 to track

Solution

CriSidEx is the first sentiment index in India, launched by SIDBI in February 2018, to track the current state and expected outlook on the MSME sector on a quarterly basis. It is developed jointly by CRISIL and SIDBI. It is a composite index based on a diffusion index of 8 parameters and measures MSE business sentiment on a scale of 0 (extremely negative) to 200 (extremely positive).  CriSidEx will have 2 indices , one for the ‘survey quarter’ and another for the ‘next quarter’ once a trend emerges after few rounds of the survey , providing independent time series data. The crucial benefit of CriSidEx is that its readings will flag potential headwinds and changes in production cycles and thus help improve market efficiencies.