All those income generating activities associated with waged work or self-employment in (including in-kind income) that are not agricultural. Non-farm livelihood are important sources of local economic growth, food security and important component of poverty alleviation (e.g. handicraft, handloom, non-timber forest products, fisheries, food processing, etc).

Micro enterprises is small businesses that is financed by microcredit, a small loan available to individuals who have no collateral, credit history, savings, or employment history. The modest loans are often sufficient to get a small local business off the ground. These businesses serve a vital purpose in improving the quality of life for people, and generally provide a product or service in their communities. Micro enterprises not only help improve the quality of life for business owners, but they also add value to the local economy. They can boost purchasing power, improve income, and create jobs. .

Small and Medium Enterprises or Small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) are businesses that maintain revenues, assets or a small number of employees below a certain threshold. Each country has its own definition of what constitutes a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). Certain size criteria must be met and occasionally the industry in which the company operates in is taken into account as well. Though small in size, small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in the economy. They outnumber large firms considerably, employ vast numbers of people and are generally entrepreneurial in nature, helping to shape innovation.

One needs to understand the context. In rural India financial inclusion is the biggest impediment for the development. Due to lack of banks in rural region, tillers and other poor are not able to borrow money for their specific purpose such as for agriculture, daughter marriage etc. So to get away with it SHG came into role. SHG is a committee of group of people (usually poor) who save a little amount of money and lend it to the committee member who is need. In India, SHGs have been mainly group of rural women who save money from their earnings and deposit it within the group. They deposit money ranging from 10 rupees to 100 rupees. Cooperative society is actually a group of people of same profession who pool their resources and share the benefit earned for example fisher-men, weavers, small farmers etc. When we talk about credit, the pooled resources are given to members as credit and an interest is also charged which the borrower has to pay back. Hence main difference between SHG and Cooperatives is cooperatives are a group of professionals usually belonging to same profession. While, SHGs are poor rural individuals who may belong to different occupations.

Geographical Indications have been given the status of intellectual property rights since the product gets more value commercially by its mere association with a particular geographical location where they are found/originated/manufactured. For example – Tea from Darjeeling, Litchis from Bihar, Petha from Agra, Bhujia from Bikaner etc. GIs helps in the identification of a source of a good which in turn is related with the quality of good. Some of the benefits of GI are it provides legal protection to original producers, prevents unauthorized use of a registered GI by others and assures safety of originality, boosts market demands and promotes economic prosperity of producers of goods produced in a geographical territory.