Q.The importance of small-scale industry in generating employment is particularly significant in the Indian context mainly because:
(A) Small-scale units use highly capital-intensive, automated technology
(B) Small-scale units create employment at a comparatively low capital cost per job, suited to a labour-abundant, capital-scarce economy
(C) Small-scale units are located only in metropolitan cities
(D) Small-scale units are exempted from paying any wages to workers

SSI's labour-intensive methods let it create jobs without needing large amounts of scarce capital per job, which matters in an economy like India's.

Match each option against the actual economic reasoning behind SSI's employment role; only (B) states it correctly.

Small-scale industry's employment role matters especially in India because its typically labour-intensive methods generate a given number of jobs using far less capital than a capital-intensive large-scale unit would need — an efficient fit for an economy where labour is relatively abundant and capital relatively scarce.

Option-by-option analysis:

• (A) Incorrect — SSI is generally labour-intensive, not capital-intensive/automated; that description fits large-scale industry.
• (B) Correct — this is exactly the low-capital-cost-per-job reasoning that makes SSI's employment role valuable in India.
• (C) Incorrect — SSI's regional-development role is precisely that it can locate BEYOND metropolitan cities, in smaller towns.
• (D) Incorrect — SSI units are not exempt from paying wages; this option misstates the point entirely.

A common error is describing SSI's employment role only as "creates jobs" without explaining WHY it does so efficiently (the low capital-per-job reasoning) — full-mark answers always give the underlying reason.