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HR Heuristics
Kick-start Employee Loyalty with These Exciting Tips
 In a typical scenario, an employer does just the bare minimum to ensure that his employees do not quit; he offers basic training which he believes is enough; he offers the basic benefits and provides bare minimum positive reinforcement or sometimes none at all.
Finance Fundamentals
SME financing is key driver of growth: ING Vysya
 ING Vysya’s Managing Director and CEO Shailendra Bhandari tells Sourav Majumdar what his priorities for the bank are and how the bank’s strategy of focusing on a few key areas is helping growth.
Marketing Mantras
It is a tad easier for service oriented women entrepreneurs in India
 Unless you take the leap you will never know what you are capable of!
Policy Polemic
Economy is not the villain
 If one blames anything for rising bad loans, it is poor credit appraisal, monitoring and follow-up.
Success Story
Lakshmi's passion for Bio-Vedic medicines earns recognition
Lakshmi, a bio-trainer and entrepreneur chose a career which was once considered unconventional in modern science. But owing to her innovation and painstaking research into cure ailments through Bio-Vedic flowers, she has brought recognition to the Bio-Vedic field of medicine.
SME Special
Expert group keen to fill skill shortages in small businesses
The Assistance to Training Institutions (ATI) scheme by Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) can contribute towards capacity building in the small scale sector in a country where approximately 83 million people are either unemployed or underemployed.
TN govt organises training on solar products for MSMEs
The Entrepreneur Development Institute (EDI) that aims to increase awareness of entrepreneurship in Tamil Nadu amongst MSMEs has organised training programmes on photovoltaic solar electric system and solar products beginning April-17.
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Stockpile
February IIP at 0.6%, beats estimates
The Quick Estimates of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) with base 2004-05 for the month of February 2013 have been released by the Central Statistics Office of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
CPI inflation slows to 10.39% in March
The Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation releases Consumer Price Indices (CPI) on base 2010=100 for all-India and States/UTs separately for rural, urban and combined every month with effect from January, 2011.
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Quotable Quotes
" We believe the combination of excellence in operations and strong execution of our strategy is critical to achieve our vision. We will continue to focus on both in future as well.
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-Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro Limited
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Directory of Testing Laboratories in India
Buy our one-of-a-kind guide to all industrial testing laboratories in India. Find the one most convenient for getting your products tested and certified. An invaluable compendium for all industrial units and exporters.
PP: 894, Hard Cover.
Price: Rs 900.
50% discount for members.
Handbook for Managing Export Payment Risks
If you are an exporter you simply cannot do without this unique publication which tells you how to manage payment and other risks arising from exports.
PP: 78.
Price: Rs 300.
50% discount for members.
Free Publications
Identification & Valuation of IPRs in MSMEs
Identification & Valuation of IPRs in MSMEs - Selected Research Papers.
Fertilizer quality control in India: Need for change
This monograph argues for a systemic change in fertiliser quality control. Essential reading for those in policy-making positions.
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FISME regularly receives monthly reports on the economies of various countries from their missions in India. These reports provide information on key economic parameters, trade related information and all news relevant for importers and exporters. In this edition you can take a look at reports on:
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Activities
Business Banter: Lessons from Entrepreneurs
Macro Metre
Domestic Digest
State Scan
World Watch
Knowledge Store
...And A Lot More
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Enabling Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to buy or sell Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), an online IPR Exchange has been launched by Secretary in the Ministry of MSME Mr Madhav Lal on April 4, 2013 in New Delhi.
This exchange is India’s first online exchange for Intellectual Property, which has been set up by the industry body, Federation of Indian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (FISME) with support from the British High Commission.
 The first meeting of the Working Group set-up by regulator of bourses- Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), to implement the budget announcement made by Finance Minister on SME Exchange, was held on April 9, 2013 in Mumbai.  Presenting FISME views to the Working Group, Mr VK Agarwal, immediate past President FISME, said that the impediments to issues on SME Exchanges in larger numbers can be attributed to three major factors that is lack of enthusiasm for these issues amongst investors, reluctance of Merchant Bankers to take on the assigned responsibilities and high cost to issuers.
 FISME has tendered an oral evidence before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce on April 4, 2013 on issues related to Budget proposals and about measures needed to promote exports. The committee was chaired by Mr Shanta Kumar.
FISME President Mr D Gandhikumar and Secretary General Mr Anil Bhardwaj made the presentation.  According to the presentation, one of the major reasons for fall in exports has been that the Duty Entitlement Pass Book (DEPB) scheme is phased out and it has not been replaced with other simple duty reimbursement scheme.
 Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME) along with Indo Turkish Business Association (ITBA) organised a seminar on ‘Business Opportunities with Turkey, in order to capitalize positive trade movement between the two countries, on April 10, 2013 at Embassy of Turkey, New Delhi.
The trade between India and Turkey has grown at 35 per cent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) in 10 years to reach USD 7.6 billion.
Both the countries have good trade relations and in order to get the most out of the positive trade trend, FISME and ITBA came together.
The chief guest of the event was Mr Caglar Goksu, Commercial Counselor of Embassy of the Republic of Turkey, New Delhi.
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‘The Best Advice I Got’
-Dhruv Shringi, Co-founder & CEO, Yatra.com
 Focus on investing in core areas-this is the best advice, Dhruv Shringi, Co-founder and CEO, Yatra.com ever got. He says, “One thing which helped our business more than double in the past three years was our focus on investing in core areas like brand and technology.”
Traditional wisdom would suggest that we should have scaled back on these activities. But after an initial phasedown in 2009-10, our board recommended that we scale up investment rapidly. This had a multiplier effect on the brand front as advertisement inventory rates were lower due to the recession and other advertisers had cut back. Similarly on the technology front, we could attract talent as larger organisations were laying off people. Investment in new product development helped us gain market share. Current macroeconomic and structural issues point to a more sustained slowdown, so one might need a different approach.
[Adapted from the Best Advice I Ever Got, Business Today]
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Macro Metre
Showing slump in the economy, the industrial growth has slipped to 0.6 per cent in February this year mainly on account of contraction in power generation and mining output and poor performance of manufacturing sector. Factory output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), had grown by 4.3 per cent in February last year. For the April-February period of 2012-13 fiscal, the industrial production growth is at 0.9 per cent, down from 3.5 per cent in the same period of 2011-12, according to official data released recently.
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 Slowdown-hit exporters expecting relief from the government will have to wait for some more time as the annual supplement to the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) of the Commerce Ministry has been delayed for a few weeks. “It is expected that the annual supplement to the FTP would be announced here by the third week of April and address both the immediate and medium term concerns of exports and to give a fillip to Indian exports,” said an official statement recntly. Earlier the government had indicated that it will be unveiled in the first week of April. Exporters are reeling under global slowdown and their shipments have dropped by 4 per cent to USD 266 billion during the 11 months of fiscal 2012-13.
The proposed Rs 5,500-crore India Inclusive Innovation Fund, focusing on generating employment and supporting livelihoods across the country through innovative enterprises, is expected to be in place by June. The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) is working on the fund, which will help Indian enterprises in building innovative solutions for developmental challenges. “It is in the process and we will send the proposal to the Cabinet for its consideration in the next few days. The fund is expected to be in place in the next two months," an MSME official said. The fund would be guided by four objectives -- focus on the poor, combine social and commercial returns, drive employment and livelihood generation and help establish a model for wider inclusive innovation funding, he added.
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 Aditya Birla Group Chairman, Kumar Mangalam Birla has pressed for better financing to the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to boost their growth. “The biggest problem that the SME sector faces today is of financing. Getting finances from Banks at competitive rates is difficult for them. Even if there is liquidity in the banking sector, still financing SMEs is difficult and because of that their growth gets stifled,” said Birla in a television interview recently. Access to finance is one of the prime areas of concern for the MSMEs in India.
MSME Ministry has approached the Finance Ministry to provide tax benefits to growth bound MSMEs apart from working out a special package for the sector, MSME Minister KH Muniyappa told reporters recently. “The government is incentivizing growth of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) by continuing to provide the non-tax benefits which they will enjoy for next three years after they have grown up. I would urge the Finance Minister to also extend, on a similar basis, the tax benefits to such growth bound MSMEs,” he said.
 After a poor response to the launch of a separate Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) trading platform, market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is now working on a proposal which will enable start-up companies to access capital without the expensive IPO route. The proposed platform, unlike the one for SMEs, will also allow start-ups to list without IPOs (Initial Public Offering), SEBI Executive Director Sivasubramanian Ramann was quoted by media reports. Sharing SEBI’s concern over dismal interest in the newly launched SME exchanges on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE), the industry body the Federation of Indian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (FISME) has suggested to the market regulator that listing of the small and medium sized companies be permitted on these platforms without offering shares to the public in the initial stage.
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The government may intervene to control the price of cotton if its manufacturers continue to hike the rate, according to Textiles Secretary Zohra Chatterji. She advised all cotton yarn producers to keep the prices low so that there is no need for government intervention. Further, she attributed the shutdown of many power looms and the resulting job loss to the price rise, according to an official statement. Meanwhile, Apparel Export Promotion Council, Chairman, A Shakthivel said, “The cotton price has soared considerably over the last month from Rs 37,600 per candy in March to Rs 38,800 per candy on April-1 owing to artificial demand created by manufacturers.”
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently extended support to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), stating they will be a major source of employment. “We must do more for supporting small and medium industry as this sector will be the key component support structure for larger industry and will be a major source of productive, creative jobs,” said the Prime Minister at the CII Annual Meet in New Delhi. In terms of value, the MSME sector accounts for about 45 per cent of the manufacturing output and 40 per cent of the total exports of the country.
 The Khadi industry will soon get a brand identity with the introduction of ‘Khadi Mark’ which will guarantee its genuineness. “Very soon a new identity for Khadi in the form of ‘Khadi Mark’ is being introduced for the uniformity and purity of its products,” said Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, KH Muniyappa in New Delhi. Its branding will ensure that customers buy genuine Khadi considering that many handlooms products of low quality are also sold in the name of Khadi. The mark will be registered under the Trademarks Act and the entire process from designing, setting up of testing labs to infrastructure will cost the government Rs 20 crore.
Ministry of Textiles has extended an opportunity to new handicraft artisans from across the country to display their unique products at Dilli Haat. Artisans of various art pieces such as jewellery, handlooms, candles, bags, jute, wood and paper products, toys and home décor have been asked to submit their applications before April-18 as per the notice from the Office of the Development Commissioner (Handicrafts). Stalls inside the complex that is popular for its inimitable ethnic wares will be allotted on a fortnightly basis from May-1 to October-15. Selection will be made through a draw of lots of April-19.
Nine companies from Gujarat bagged awards given by the central Micro Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) 2011, recently organized in New Delhi. These include Rajkot-based M/s Noble Refractories in innovation category, Rajkot-based Infinity Infoway Private Limited in micro and small enterprise (service) category, Ahmedabad-based Shree Umiya Surgical Private Limited in quality product category for micro and small enterprise for Plastic and Disposable, Rajkot-based Cyber Ceramic in the same category for ceramic glazed tiles segment, Ahmedabad-based HOF Furniture Systems Private Limited in the same category in wooden furniture segment and Ahmedabad-based NBE Motors Private Limited in the same category for electric motors segment. Ahmedabad-based Bluecoat Private Limited bagged the award for outstanding entrepreneurship in small enterprise (manufacturing category).
 The fourth edition of the Business Today-YES Bank SME awards, which recognise the best small and medium enterprises in the country, was held recently in New Delhi. Vadodara-based Ankur Scientific Energy Technologies won the overall Best SME award in the small (revenue below Rs 50 crore) category. Delhi based-DFM Foods walked away with the overall Best SME award in the medium (Rs 50- Rs 200 crore) category. In all 15 awards were given away across eight categories.
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Goa
Goa registered a 48.11% industrial growth in 2012-13 as compared to 2011-12 as a total of 617 micro, small and medium enterprises were registered with the directorate of industries, trade and commerce for setting up new projects in the state. The figure was however, only up to February 2013. According to information provided by the department of industries, trade and commerce, for the same period , 51 micro, small and medium enterprises started commercial production as compared to 48 enterprises in 2011-12, thereby registering a growth of 6.25% during the same period.
Gujarat
Gujarat based business woman Sangita Shrinand Palshikar won the MSME national award-2011 for best woman entrepreneur while Nirmal Rani of Haryana bagged the first prize for outstanding SC/ST entrepreneur. Winners in other categories included Punjab based companies Mecpro Heavy Engineering and Preet Agro Industries which bagged first prize for Research and Development, respectively. As for the innovation category, the awardees included Imperial Home appliances (Himachal Pradesh), Noble Refractories (Gujarat), Preet Agro Industries (Punjab).
Jammu and Kashmir
In Jammu and Kashmir, about one lakh youth including dropouts will be given training and jobs by 2017 under the Himayat scheme, out of which over 15,000 would be given training and placements during the year 2013-14. As per the Himayat scheme, priority would be given to youth who are school drop-outs, those who have studied up to class 10 or class 12 and to college drop-outs. To date, 45 Himayat training centres have been set up across 19 districts out of the total 22 districts in the state. “Over 5,000 youth had been provided jobs in various companies within and outside the state since the inception of the scheme and over 15,000 would be given training and placements during the year 2013-14,” Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh said.
Karnataka
 MIA proposed to prepare an election manifesto on industries' expectations from political parties contesting in the May 5 Karnataka State Assembly elections. The Centre has given an in-principle approval for the proposed general engineering cluster in Mysore. It will provide a financial assistance of Rs 15 crore. The approval was given at a meeting on March 20 chaired by Secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) in Delhi, according to Mysore Industries Association (MIA) general secretary Suresh Kumar Jain.
Kerala
The District Industries Centre has informed that the micro and small-scale industries have shown an impressive growth in the last financial year. In the last financial year, 1,483 micro and small industries were started in the district. The investment is Rs 188 crore and the employment generated is 9,372. The Industries Centre disbursed Rs 1.13 crore as subsidy for 60 entrepreneurs. A state-level industrial equipment exhibition was conducted and a buyer-seller meet was organised, apart from the training programmes.
Tamil Nadu
 In a move to boost entrepreneurship in the state, the Tamil Nadu government has allocated Rs 100 crore to the New Entrepreneur Cum Enterprise Development (NEED) Scheme, which was introduced in 2012-13. The allocation in 2013-14 is almost double what it was last year. Under this scheme, the government will provide a capital subsidy of 25 per cent on investments, besides training and consultancy support. The state government has allocated Rs 100 crore to the NEED scheme in the Budget for 2013-14, and 50 per cent of this amount has been earmarked for women beneficiaries. In 2012-13, the state government had released Rs 52 crore for the scheme.
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South Africa 
 The Absa small and medium enterprises (SME) index for South Africa rose slightly in the fourth quarter of 2012, to 92, due to some growth in self-employment, the bank said when releasing the index recently. The growth in self-employment translated to an estimated 1.2-million self-employed businesspeople, according to the index. The index is compiled using official Statistics South Africa data on various economic indicators. Economists.co.za chief economist Mike Schussler, who works on the SME index in partnership with Absa, said the effects of the global economic downturn were still being felt, given that self-employment was still 2.5% below its recent highs.
United Kingdom 
SME owner managers feel the recent Budget didn’t provide enough immediate relief for start-ups and growing businesses, with measures providing long-term incentives to invest rather than immediate help. This was the conclusion of a round-table panel of small business leaders convened to look at the outcomes of the Government’s Budget last week, organised by the leading provider of flexible work space for growing businesses, Avanta Managed Offices.
 According to research conducted by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, a higher proportion of loan applications from smaller businesses have been rejected since 2008. The findings are likely to increase pressure on banks to lend more after early figures published by the Bank of England revealed net lending had dropped since the Government’s flagship Funding for Lending scheme was launched in August. Business secretary Vince Cable says: “Small and medium-sized businesses are still telling me that access to finance is their number one problem, preventing them from investing and growing.
United States of America 
Small businesses that hired new workers or gave salary hikes to their workers in the US, last year, are likely to be given a 10 per cent tax credit, according to a media report. A proposal to this effect figured in US President Barack Obama’s USD 3.8 trillion budget plan that was released recently. For the fiscal year that begins October-1, the President’s budget message also contained proposals that would streamline the application process for Small Business Administration (SBA) loans and increase the number of lenders working with the small scale sector.
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Write and Win prize!
Write your comments on the FISME Factor. Share your views and suggestions on MSME issues. Win prize! The best mail will get a special book every fortnight.
send mail to: newsletter@fisme.org.in
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There are business opportunities available for Indian companies in Srilanka. The interested MSMEs can check details.
There are business opportunities available for Indian companies in Turkey. The interested MSMEs can check details.
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During the period from April 1, 2013 to April 15, 2013 a total of 15 new MSMEs became member of FISME.
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