Editorials
by Rajen Kumar
APEDA Rendering Lip Service
For over four years now, we have been making relentless efforts to fill information deficit that painfully exists in the country's Micro, Small and Medium Sector. Encouragingly enough,...
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Special Reports
Jan 2012Be Skeptical. Be very Skeptical. Mistake upon Mistake
In recent months, we've had a few slip-ups by the official statistical system in India: • Yesterday's IIP release was preceded by a mistake. Mint says: On Monday, the...
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Interviews
Jan, 2012
Fascination for Furniture: Idea Behind AIZA
AIZA involves exclusive and unique pieces which gives a very personalized detail touch. The company hones the talent of select few young designers who have something immaculately original and unconventional to offer. AIZA does not manufacture furniture; they showcase our culture and heritage and helps in storing small pieces of them in our lives. 
“Eradicate Poverty Through Profits” How Onicra Perceives SMEs
Onicra states that they have rated around 9000 SMEs since inception in 2005. Why did those companies want to go for credit rating? Did it serve their purpose? What systems do you have in place to ascertain the same?
Nov, 2011
"Secure Surveillance for Safety"- Says Oh Tee Lee, Regional Director, Axis Communications
Surveillance has become a serious concern for small and medium enterprises, shops as well as residential complexes apart from the large companies. In the past decade, this area has been rapidly developing in India owing to random security lapses and grim repercussions. The growth of shopping malls, open plan offices, bank branches as well as other retail segments has increased the need for surveillance not only for larger issues of security like terrorist attacks but for petty shop thefts and irregularities of clients and staff. The network video surveillance market in India is currently valued at USD 26.1 million and is poised to grow to USD 89.2 million by 2013. India has the second highest forecasted growth in Asia with a CAGR of 22.1% as per IMS 2010 Asia report.
"Every Cloud has a Silver Lining"- says C.S.N. Murthy, Founder & CEO, Ozonetel
Cloud technology is here and everyone to be up there. Most of the SMEs, SMBs and BPOs have started adopting cloud telephony which is very useful for their business and expansion of it. They can now easily and more efficiently reach out to the tier 2 and 3 cities where access to internet is quite low or negligible. Cloud telephony also reduces the customer care service and is cost effective as business or enterprise does not have to go for long procedure. The technology offers huge scope for innovation as a service or solution provider.
Oct, 2011
What in the World is Happening to the Rupee? - Mr. Ajay Shah explains in an interview with SME World
The INR/USD rate is now nudging Rs.50 to the dollar. This is a big move over a short period: a depreciation of 12.1 per cent over the 84 days from 1 July till 23 September.
Mr. Rajiv Rao says, “Getting Closer to Customers – Lenovo's Strategy"
Indian SME segment is fast becoming lucrative for both computer hardware and software providers considering the steady investment made by the enterprises towards upgrading their IT assets compounded with the steady progress in the Information and communication technology (ICT) arena. There are selected few branded players competing in the hardware market. A laptop earlier considered to be a luxury item has now become a necessity not just for professionals but for students too.
Cloud Computing is the Future: Prateek Pashine, President, SME, Tata Communications
Tata Communications foresee a huge untapped potential in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sector in India. SMEs in India have been open to experiment with technology but they are extremely value conscious and that has led to slower than expected adoption of technology. Also given the diversity of the market, the general awareness levels are lower among them about technology.
Incessant Innovation for the Complete Digital Experience - Rajiv Bapna, Director, Amkette
Amkette was formed in 1986 and today has emerged as “a leading convergence catalyst focused on redefining the digital lifestyle” of users through transformational innovation. The company has selectively focused on state of the art storage, computing, entertainment & wireless products. The company aims to deliver best in class digital products, to bridge the gap between internet, storage, TV & computers thereby achieving total satisfaction of its customers.
Sep, 2011
"Albania- A Gateway for International Busines"- says Hiten Arya, CEO, Hiten Group
“Countries like Albania have a very high import percentage, and are looking for quality and reliable, yet economical suppliers. This gap could be filled in by Indian exporters! It is already well established that Indian suppliers have high quality standards and are cost effective as well,” says Hiten Arya, Founder and CEO, Hiten Group in a conversation with SME World.
Dr. Giridhar J. Gyani talks about Inspecting and Certifying Conformance
“Quality emerges out from competition. You see that happening in sectors like IT, Automobile and Textile. I always say that opening of economy in year 1991 was a major boost to quality. Unfortunately even after two decades, we have not been able to maintain pace and majority of services continue to remain under government control. We need to open out and where necessary we can have professional regulatory bodies for keeping watch”, - Dr. Girdhar J. Gyani.
Majestic MRSS Offer Solutions- Market Research Helps Design Growth Strategies
Companies especially those forming part of the FMCG, Pharmaceutical, Consumer Goods segment have huge marketing and advertisement budgets. All these activities are aimed at acquiring higher visibility and sales for market share. Understanding the target market and its preferences apart from the logic behind buying decision is of utmost importance. The effectiveness of advertisement campaigns, sales promotion activities, product design and packaging can only be achieved if the customer inclination is identified. There is a huge market for research and survey firms to cater to these needs. The inputs from market research form an important section of the Marketing Mix.
PrEquate Assures Inclusive Approach: Pragmatic Approach to Professional Services Missing in SMEs
Driven by sheer passion and enthusiasm to take on a different aspect of entrepreneurship, a group of three professionals, all chartered accountants, thought of venturing into an unexplored area – management consulting and execution – and went on to set up 'PrEquate' in January 2011 in Bengluru.
Aug, 2011
Professional Approach Behind the Success of Family Businesses
We started from zero as an under garment company and then we entered into the fabrics, then yarn and finally we have ventured into fibre. We are selling in the traditional domestic market but at the same time exporting to about 35 countries across the world.
‘Truck Drivers Must Reach Home Safe to their Families'
Truck drivers and Transporters are our very important associates. Though we know they are the backbone of the country but we have not done enough as a country for this segment. It is they who traverse long distances, often continuously and under trying conditions. Since they live on the road, they are vulnerable to various risks, either of ailments or of road accidents.'
'Adopt Performance Management Process to Get & Retain Right Talent for Your Company' - Rajneesh Singh, Managing Partner SimplyHR Solutions LLP
Let us accept, SMEs will always be on the back foot because of its size and the kind of people practises that are prevalent in some of these companies. Having said that, there are numerous examples of small companies which have excellent people practises and which have been able to not only attract but retain high performing individuals.
Jun, 2011
Hamariyah Free Zone Rolls out Red Carpet for SMEs
In a span of 15 years, the Hamriyah Free Zone Authority has already attracted over 4,000 investors who have set their industries in the Zone. Dr. Rashid has called upon the Indian SMEs to come to Sharjah to setup their industries in the Free Zone which offers a host of facilities and concession necessary in this globally competitive environment.
Proline Efforts In : Keeping You Fit Through Revolutionary Work-outs
Proline Fitness brings to you an experience of a lifetime by assisting you to train in the serenity of nature, right from lush forests of Hawaii to the majestic Grand Canyon; or to run Sin City's infamous strip, all within the proximity of your habitat. Proline Fitness, the pioneers in personal and commercial range of fitness equipments, launches “Virtual Active” under the brand Matrix.
May, 2011
Serving the Pained and the Poor: The Florence Nightingale of Indian Dentistry
These are traits not acquired from textbooks, nor passed on by seniors, but these are what is inherent in one's nature or culture. It indeed is a remarkable contrast to the haughty attitude of bureaucrats, corporate executives, top notch professionals, Ministers, doctors themselves and what have you. It is difficult to explain such traits, but they have something to do with the passion that one has for one's profession and the manner in which one has nurtured it.
School of Inspired Leadership: ‘We Create Ethical Business Leaders who are Game Changers'
But can entrepreneurship be taught in the confines of classrooms? It is a matter of discussion but one thing is clear that all the successful entrepreneurs have been innovative and creative. Though every child is born with a certain level of creativity but he slightly destroys his creativity or his latent talent with the fears as he grows. Fear of expectation from parents, fear to stay ahead, fear to get good job, fear to be established in life and so on.
Apr, 2011
Outsourcing Means Importing Best Practice in Cost Effective Ways
If the company wants to retain their best performers, it has to give fatter salary sometimes while compromising with the budget. In such instances SMEs have two options either to give the desired salary to them or suffer in terms of the productivity due to lesser skilled professional or semi-skilled professionals.
Penning a Success Story: Indian Pen Industry Poised for 10% Growth
The writing instrument industry in India is highly fragmented. The total market is valued at about Rs.2000 crores and 75% of this lies in the organized sector. Linc Pen has an estimated market share of 10% of the overall organized sector. Going by the current figures, Linc Pen would be the second largest player all India and the market leader in the Eastern Zone.
Mar, 2011
No Sensitiveness towards Women Entrepreneurs - FIWE President Rajnee Aggarwal
We strongly feel that policies of the Government need to be more gender sensitive. Let's take the example of the PM's MSME Task Force recommendations. You would be surprised to know that there is almost no mention of women entrepreneurs in the whole report.
Feb, 2011
'Policymakers Need to Support Budding Entrepreneurs with Business-Friendly Policies & Infrastructure'
Creating a climate that promotes entrepreneurship is critical for economic growth and development. Even though the entrepreneurial trend is quite favourable as seen in the Indian context, there are certain factors that create bottlenecks in giving it a push.
Jan, 2011
Towards Security-free Environ for SMEs Need for Education to Know Online Security Implications
Today if anyone knows your name, date of birth, address, etc. he can access your account and can reap the benefit of your cash. There are many challenges in the credit cards and online financial transactions. Many spam mails, fishing mails hit the inbox everyday. It's huge and sophisticated network to get the financial gains.
Dec, 2010
Constraints Hampering SMEs Growth in Western India: Kalantri
The manufacturing sector in the western region of the country is dominated by a large concentration of SME enterprises. The SME sector in this part of the country is also fairly well diversified representing every segment of industry.
Nov, 2010
Quikr Offers Faster, Better and Cheaper Online Visibility for SMEs
From the most mundane to the highly unusual, Quikr is a platform that connects consumers to meet supply and demand in an easy and instant manner. Be it buying a new phone; selling a seldom-used treadmill or an old TV; renting an apartment or finding partners to car-pool - Quikr is the place that makes it possible for you in the 'quikest and simplest' way.
Oct, 2010
HR Practices in India - 'Instant Gratification has to be Replaced by Will to Learn and Patience'
The rise of employment opportunities itself is a reason for attrition as employees have a wider range of jobs to choose from. The concept of 'loyalty to the profession' more than 'loyalty to an organisation' is being talked about today.
Reduce Your Communication Bills with Avaya IP Office
IP Office addresses basic telephony needs, leverages built-in convergence capabilities, and capitalizes on robust unified applications to deliver intelligent communications to your users and customers. This small office IP phone system simplifies processes, and streamlines the information exchange within systems to create simple and effective communication experiences.
Canon Eyes SMEs with Multi Functional Products
In their quest to score over others, the companies are introducing multi-functional products (MFPs) which often provide ultimate solution for printing, fax, copying in single equipments.
Sep, 2010
'Schemes for MSMEs Can be Revised'
The running schemes can be revised in view of the feedback from the entrepreneurs to make it more acceptable and practical in nature. There are many entrepreneurs from the Northern part of the country who look for the support from the government. Role of the state governments is also important. Ministry of MSME is very serious about the issues. Various schemes of the ministry are being implemented by the state governments in their respective states.
Aug, 2010
With 50,000 investment to 134 Cr. Turnover - He Just Dialed the Right Numbers
Now Just Dial is also launched in the United States. Just Dial was selected for its migration from a Microsoft DOS-based client server system to a web-based system powered by Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Just Dial was able to increase the flexibility and decrease IT and licensing costs by migrating from proprietary software to open source solutions.
Need for a Visible Recognition of MSMEs : Indranil Deb
Indranil usually engages only with businesses where there is a close fit between his skill set, industry knowledge, experience and interests to pair with growing companies and businesses. Such ideal partners are typically fast growing companies, entrepreneurs with few years under their belt, traction(sales), passion for growth and improvement, see value in engaging professionals to help run the company instead of hoarding all the tasks, and who are ready to step things up.
Blending Quality with High-end Technology
Majority of the Indian population lives in rural or semi-urban areas where resources are limited. People are in low-income group and they don't think about a mobile with high-end features. But they have willingness to have mobile with maximum features. Further, India still has a mobile density of below 50 per cent level, where as in developed economies it is at saturation level. In order to capture this huge opportunity as also to cater to this need of the sector, Vee Ess decided to enter into the mobile market.
“I always wanted to become an Entrepreneur” IAS Topper Dr. Faisal Tells SME WORLD
Before going in for civil services, he also thought of starting his own business in medicinal plantations as Kashmir has a fund of herbal plantations. He also thought of starting a coaching academy and putting up a mobile clinic in Kashmir.
Gearing Entrepreneurship with 'The Second Gear'
I felt the vacuum of suitable business strategies and growth plans among the micro entrepreneurs. I decided to work for the upliftment of the micro entrepreneurs. I met many entrepreneurs having different kind of businesses and mindsets. I tried to convince them the power of a promising business plan and its importance at the same time. Many of them adopted the sutra for the continuous growth and business plans.
Jul, 2010
CSR An Opportunity Not Responsibility: MCX
MCX’s core goal is to create efficient markets where all economic factors can find a level playing field. This will permit more of India’s growing prosperity to be shared by its masses. Our Corporate Social Opportunities is part and parcel of this overriding mission objective.
HR Management: SMEs Need to be Customer-Focused
With business presence in multiple locations, it becomes difficult to maintain a standard HR process across the organization without a proper Human Resource Management System (HRMS) in place. Even though SMEs’ need for a robust technology system for HR management is mostly similar to that of big enterprises, it has not been very economic to implement large ERP solutions like Oracle, SAP.
SMEs More Vulnerable to Cyber Crimes
The cyber mafia is hugely benefited by malpractices giving rise to underground economy. The Symantec Report on the Underground Economy is a detailed look into an online underground economy that has matured into an efficient, global marketplace in which stolen goods and fraud-related services are regularly bought and sold, and where the estimated value of goods offered by individual traders is measured in millions of dollars.
Jun, 2010
India Will be World's Third Largest Energy Consumer in Two Decades
The misuse and wastage of petro energy in the petro-intensive industries is a common phenomenon. According to Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA), industrial sector accounts for 25% of the total oil consumption. Proper management and right usage of the energy could result the saving by at least 20%.
May, 2010
Manisha Gupta on IPR
For a country like India, the most important of IPRs is the Geographical Indications tool which confers rights and accruing benefits to entire communities of producers of genuine products from different regions.
Mar, 2010
Skill Development is Priority Area and Infrastructure is Primary Need -Dr. H.P. Kumar
Dr. Kumar who has an in-depth knowledge of the problems of the small entrepreneurs says, “ITIs are dieing out now. They have lost their importance. Many issues have now originated. They need to be updated with the latest market requirements. We have to train the youths keeping in mind the industry requirement.
Google's Initiative in Empowering Indian SMEs
The small and medium business (SMBs) sector which constitutes 80% of the total number of industrial enterprises in India often faces a challenge when it comes to advertising given the high costs involved. Recognizing this roadblock and the huge potential for SMBs to grow
Feb, 2010
“SMEs Need to Integrate Various Business Functions for Health Growth”
The ERP suite is developed after extensive years of research on Indian logistics industry, understanding the issues and challenges faced by the sector. Through this installation, Softlink has now joined the league of Indian Software product companies that have carved niche in specific verticals for developing ERP solutions.
Credit Ratings enhances the credibility of enterprises : Ramraj Pai
CRISIL Ratings also offers technical know-how overseas. For instance, it has provided assistance and training for setting up ratings agencies in Malaysia (RAM) and Israel and in the Caribbean.
Jan, 2010
Dinesh Rai, Man of the Moment
The SMEs need to be assisted enabling them to participate in domestic and international fairs/ exhibitions in a bigger way to display their products and widen business opportunities/prospects. A Public Procurement Policy for micro and small enterprises (MSEs) would also help in ensuring a fair share of the market.
Dec, 2009
India’s Foreign Trade Policy is not Pragmatic
The Indian Foreign Trade Policy lacks the basic ingredients that are required to encourage the Indian SMEs open up to the competitive overseas markets, says Sushakar Kasture, Director, Exim Institute. “The problem is that our products are missing by and large as there is virtually no visibility of our produce. Efforts should be initiated to involve the foreign missions to develop some mechanism to expose Indian products to the foreign markets.”
On the Foreign Trade Policy
FTP can be a catalyst for exporters if government has realistic FTP policy that suppports the exporters. There should be new sops and stimulus packages and financial institutions should lend liquidity at affordable interest rates. Trade policy would be a mix of fiscal incentives and simplification of procedures for carrying out foreign trade.
M. Gandhi - Managing Director, UBM India Pvt. Ltd. and UBM Asia (Thailand) Ltd
I am a Malaysian but my roots are in India,” Gandhi says with visible pride. India's cultural diversity has impressed Gandhi in a big way. “This is what makes India a great and a successful economy.”
Nov, 2009
Want to build a High-growth enterprise that will create a lot of value?
Good margins and good growth create great value. Sectors growing faster than GDP and attracting capital include traditional sectors such as infrastructure, real estate, manufacturing, and those that result from increased expectations and desires for higher quality services: think healthcare, financial services, education and public services.
Sep, 2009
Amita Naithani - Managing Director, Merlin Creations
Amita Naithani – MD, Merlin Creations, an entrepreneur and exporter talks about successful entrepreneurship, her journey in the world of business and the future of Indian garment exporters.
Credit Guarantee Scheme targets one lac units in FY 2010
Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) was established in August, 2000 with Government of India and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) with an initial contribution of Rs.125 crore in the ratio of 4:1. The corpus has since been enhanced to Rs.1,804 crore as on date as against the committed corpus of Rs.2,500 crore.
Aug, 2009
M-payment, mobile payments approved by RBI.
The RBI green signal to m-payments, almost all retailers are ready to jump on the bandwagon to adopt m-payment platforms to ensure that they offer this convenient service to retail consumers.
May, 2009
Dr. Sain Dass - Maize Man of India
Maize, the most versatile crop with wider adaptability in varied agro-ecologies has highest genetic yield potential among the food grain crops. India, despite major chunk of maize farming concentrating in marginal environments, maize contributes more than 8% in the national food basket.
'We are still bound by the risk-averse culture in our DNA, which should change.' Vipul Jain
Kale is a leading solutions provider to the global Airline, Logistics and Travel industry. Being an entrepreneur, Vipul Jain exhorts the youth to overcome the conventional risk-averse mind and dare to be an entrepreneur.
Mar, 2009
Mentoring is like Business Parenting – Bhartiya Yuva Shakti Trust mentoring programme
BYST we follow the ancient Guru-Shishya parampara which is very well rooted in the Indian society. The mentor is someone who can be a role model for the entrepreneur.
Our Achievements
- Winner of appreciation award for promoting SMEs in India.
- 1st ever Indian magazine to penetrate tier II, III cities & the rural belt.
- Industry Partnerships include CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM, PHDCC, AIMA, ITPO, SME Network, Federation of Indian Micro Small Enterprises (FISME)
- Official Magazine Partners for several national & international MSME events.
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The Last Word
Down the Memory Lane
Zainul Abdin was the only person who would pour his heart out to me in a mix of Urdu-Hindi (Hindustani ) in hush-hush tones during the war-torn Dhaka (then Dacca) in the early 70s where I worked...
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