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Recently, the RBI Governor also highlighted the need to improve ‘ease of doing business’. He is reported to have said that a local bureaucrat armed with archaic laws could be a real tyrant for small entrepreneurs. Any state which is serious in promoting MSMEs must have an effective Feedback cum Grievance Redressal Mechanism under direct supervision its Chief Political head. Such a mechanism at the District and the State level should be chaired by DMs and Chief Secretary respective with representation from all industry related departments. People should be encouraged to file their comments/ complaints on a portal which are taken up for time bound resolution with all proceedings placed in public domain.
As such a mechanism would allow collation, sorting, aggregation and analysis of grievances, it would lead to identification of the systemic elements in complaints of similar nature. The ‘identified systemic complaints’ can be taken up separately with the concerned department Heads and handled on different footings to form part of ‘reform agenda’.
"
FISME organised “Awareness Programmes on Quality Management Standards and Quality Technical Tools” (QMS/QTT) under NMCP scheme sponsored by Development Commissioner, Ministry of MSME, Govt. of India.
In a nationwide series of 8 programmes spread across eight states, FISME in association with its industry partner, Federation of Small & Medium Industries (FOSMI) and Santiniketani Artistic Leather Goods Manufacturers Welfare Association successfully organised another one in the series of awareness programme on Quality Management Standards (QMS) and Quality Technical Tools (QTT) with special reference to Leather Sector at Santiniketani Leather Association Seminar Hall, Santiniketan, Birbhum on Saturday 10, January 2015.
FISME organised ‘Profit Mantras for Business”- yet another programme in a nationwide series of workshops for bringing in practical wisdom to entrepreneurs on 21st January 2015 at Hotel Manohar in Hyderabad.
Mr. Satsh Gottipati, Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME) gave the welcome address. Mr. Amish Agarwal, Credit Works gave a presentation on finance. Presentation giving an insight into New Style of Information Technology was given by Mr. Ramanjanyulu, Hewlett-Packard India. Mr. C. Kutumba Rao, Vice Chairman, State Planning Board, Government of Andhra Pradesh gave the Keynote Address.
The programme was attended by Mr. Nageshwar Rao, President, FETSIA, Mr. A.P.K.Reddy, President, FSME and Mr. Hanumantha Rao, President, FASMME.
The India MSME Summit (Telangana)- jointly organized by Govt. of Telangana and FISME, was held on 30th January 2015 at Hyderabad.
The Summit was inaugurated by Jupally Krishna Rao, Minister for Industries, Handlooms & Textiles and Sugars, Govt. of Telangana. He also released the new industrial Policy of Telangana during the Summit.
Welcoming the delegates FISME President Dr. D. Gandhikumar called upon the new state to pay adequate attention to ease of doing business to attract investment and creation of small enterprises. “Most issues that MSMEs find difficult to deal with while setting up new enterprises or running the existing ones relate to States and therefore a new state like Telangana can move faster in easing regulatory burden and write on clean slate without any regulatory baggage”, he added.
Entrepreneurs have got it wrong about education. Traditional models of sitting in classrooms listening to lectures have passed their sell-by date. The future lies in experiential learning by doing.
“It’s like learning to ride a bike, you push the pedals, you fall, you get back up, you adjust and try again,” says Juris Ulmanis, Latvian-based co-founder of global entrepreneurship educational platform Experiential Simulations, where students hone their entrepreneurial skills by behaving like entrepreneurs.
A former senior manager at Motorola, founder of two companies, for the past decade, Ulmanis has been a university professor teaching entrepreneurship in Latvia, Germany, Poland, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark.
The government has pressed the accelerator on reforms, fast tracking a faltering disinvestment programme, fixing a base price for auction of 3G spectrum and deciding not to appeal a decision by the Bombay High Court, which had quashed a transfer pricing-related tax demand on Vodafone, keeping its vow of a non-adversarial tax regime.
The Centre on Wednesday notified stock exchanges that it would sell up to 10% in Coal India on Friday, a transaction that could fetch as much as Rs 24,000 crore, more than half the selloff target of Rs 43,425 crore for FY15. It has raised only Rs 1,700 crore till now. While the decision on CIL stake sale was cleared by a high-powered ministerial panel headed by FM Arun Jaitley, all other decisions were taken by the Cabinet, which met on Wednesday afternoon.
With a total production of 83.20 million tonnes (MT), India remained the world's fourth-largest steel producing nation for the fifth year in a row in 2014 as well, according to data compiled by World Steel Association (WSA).
In fact, there was no change in the world order of steel production in the past year with China remaining at the top, Japan second and the US at the third position, producing 822.7 MT, 110.66 MT and 88.34 MT of steel, respectively.
India was at the third position in 2009, but it has been at the fourth place since 2010.
The country steel production was 68.97 MT in 2010, 73.47 MT in 2011, 77.26 MT in 2012 and 81.29 MT in 2013.
Mergers and acquisitions in the renewable energy sector in Asia Pacific has grown 22 per cent in 2014 to $6 billion, driven by JSW Energy’s $1.6-billion acquisition of Jaypee Group’s hydro power assets along with other deals in China and Australia.
JSW Energy’s acquisition was in fact the second largest renewable energy deal globally, according to global accounting and consulting firm PwC’s research.
However, PwC’s consultants expect M&A activity to become muted for the short term in India renewable energy sector with momentum shifting towards fresh investments. “In the renewable energy sector in India, investors are largely inclined towards project or platform level investments so the M&A activity will take some time to build,” Kameswara Rao, partner and Leader Power Utilities and Mining, PwC India said.
There is little doubt that when it comes to smart cities, it's the Asia-Pacific region that is going to see the most action in the next few years. According to a report, 22 out of 37 major smart cities across the world are likely to come up in the APAC region by 2022.
Since it is technology that forms the connecting cord of smart cities, IT Infrastructure players are keen to tap into this substantial opportunity. The Japanese IT major, Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) is no exception. Primarily known as a storage company, HDS has, over the past few years been redefining itself as an IT infrastructure player, with some good results. Some of the city transformation projects that HDS is doing in countries in the APAC region are likely to help the company in lapping up smart city contracts in India.
Giving a fillip to the programme of developing smart cities in the country, the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has signed three Memorandums of Understanding on cooperation to support the development of smart cities in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh with the respective state governments.
“The MoUs with specific reference to development of Allahabad, Ajmer and Visakhapatnam as smart cities were signed in the presence of Minister of Urban Development, M Venkaiah Naidu here on Sunday,” an official release said.
India Ratings & Research has revised its cement sector outlook for FY16 to “stable”, from “stable to negative” a year ago, on expectations that demand growth at 8 per cent would outpace supply additions at 6.7 per cent in FY16.
Cement capacity utilisation which was around 71 per cent in FY14 is likely to improve to 73 per cent to 75 per cent in FY16, the ratings agency said in its report.
The southern region, with a significant over—supply, is likely to maintain a supply discipline during FY14— FY16 with a capacity addition of just 7 mtpa over this period. This is expected to improve cement capacity utilisation in this region to 61— 63 per cent in FY16 from 56 per cent in FY14.
The union steel and mines ministry has sought an immediate hike in import duty on finished steel to 10% from the present level of 5 to 7.5% and a withdrawal of duty on raw materials like, iron ore and coking coal in the light of surging steel imports.
While these have been part of its Budget recommendations, the move gathered significance recently with the ministry shooting off an urgent letter to the finance ministry to implement a pre-Budget change in duty rates.
The move, if implemented, will bring much needed cheer to domestic steelmakers grappling with rising imports and scare raw materials, the ministry's suggestion against lowering export duty on iron ore will disappoint the mining sector players.
Giving emphasis to safety at the workplace for achieving competitiveness and sustainable manufacturing growth, various small, medium and large manufacturing units were honoured today for their excellence in safety systems.
Secretary, Department of Public Enterprises, K D Tripathi gave away the 4th FICCI Safety Systems Excellence Awards for manufacturing at a FICCI event here, as per an official release.
In the small scale industry sector, ITC Limited, SBU: PPB, Munger bagged the gold award and Halla Visteon Climate Systems India Pvt Ltd, Bhiwadi bagged the silver award.
Industry body Assocham and the Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICAI) have jointly set up the country's first 'Virtual Centre for Development of MSMEs'.
"The Centre will cater as a facilitator to MSMEs by addressing their issues, connecting them to global research and development (R&D) centres, strengthening industry-academia partnership, skill up-gradation and conducting product/industry specific seminars and workshops," as per a vision document released at a conference here today.It was released by A.S.Durga Prasad, president, ICAI, Ravindra Sannareddy, chairman, Assocham, Southern Regional Council, and D.S. Rawat, national secretary general, Assocham.
The Centre aims to reach out to about 30 million MSMEs, educate at least 50,000 MSME units about exports, assist about 20 million budding entrepreneurs, train at least 10 million non-skilled/semi-skilled people across India and assist at least 500 MSMEs to produce innovative products, it said.
Union Minister for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Kalraj Mishra on Friday said the Centre was focussing on developing entrepreneurial skills in the youth of North East.
“The Central government is focussing on development of leadership qualities and entrepreneurial abilities among youth of the region to ensure socio-economic development and growth of the nation,” Mishra said while inaugurating the Business Incubation Centre on Readymade Garment and Handloom at the Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE) today.
He pointed out that IIE has been playing a pivotal role in imparting training to the youth of the region to empower them through training on entrepreneurship development, skill building and promotion of clusters.
With an aim to open a world of opportunities to Indian coir and natural fibre manufacturers, Coir Kerala 2015, the biggest international event of its kind will be held in Alappuzha district from February 1 to 5.
Organised by the Government of Kerala, the five day event will showcase the best coir products to the world and bring together over 170 foreign and 300 domestic buyers with a representation from 46 countries.
Most of all, it will provide a platform for sellers, industry experts, trade bodies, organisations and policy makers to interact, share knowledge, exchange ideas on latest products, display products and services, seek new business opportunities.
As many as 950 global and domestic exhibitors, particularly from the MSME sector are current showcasing a wide range of products at the International Guwahati Trade Fair (IGTF) which started today at Maniram Dewan Trade Centre here.
The week long 22nd edition of the event organised by Industries and Trade Fair Association of Assam (ITFAA) will provide a major impetus to the Make in India policy.
The trade fair will provide the participants an opportunity to promote their products, expand market and meet potential buyers from across the country and all over the world during the trade days.
The sectors being represented at the fair are agriculture, automobile, packaging, steel, stationary, cosmetics, jewellery, consumer durables, information technology, textiles, electronics, food, chemicals, building construction materials and leather sector.
Considered the oldest and largest consumer goods fair in North East India, it is the only international exposition in the region with both B2B and B2C components.
NSIC a public sector enterprise under the Ministry of MSME, Government of India signed an MoU of Cooperation with Black Business Council (BBC) of South Africa for developing youth owned enterprises in South Africa in the presence of Kalraj Mishra, Minister of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises in South Africa.
The MoU, besides cooperation in MSME sector, also focuses on BBC’s efforts to economically empower the marginalised group in South Africa through NSIC’s Rapid Incubation Programme. BBC plans to establish five such Rapid Incubation Centres in South Africa in cooperation with NSIC.
With the country's economic growth slowing down, China is doubling down its policies to support its small business sector. Last year, a preferential income tax policy was introduced to provide a corporate income tax rebate to low-income SMEs. Similarly, another measure exempted such SMEs from value-added or business tax. Recently, it was announced that more funds would be released to banks and they, in turn, must lend on to SMEs meeting certain criteria. These kind of measures clearly show the firm commitment and genuine political will of the Chinese leaders to promote their SME sector.
Like India, China has no such investment limit in case of SMEs. The definition is a bit complex instead. The criteria of classifying SMEs are formulated by the government agency in charge of enterprises under the State Council of China, according to a number of factors including, employees, annual revenue and total assets. However, the main emphasis is placed on earning of revenue by a firm. Indian SMEs have long been demanding for a revenue-based classification and it is surprising that our policy makers are always turning a blind eye to this demand.
“Industry & Technology Expo” – 2015
A National Level event on National Vendor Development Programme cum Exhibition 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th February 2015 Parade Ground, Dehradun, Uttarakhand
With the RBI slashing the repo rate by 25 bps to 7.75 per cent, how would the Indian MSME manufacturing be affected?
According to the FISME Factor, With the RBI slashing the repo rate by 25 bps to 7.75 per cent, 43 percent of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) think that it will have a positive effect, 57 per cent think it will have no effect, whereas none think it will have a negative effect.
When it comes to engaging employees, being small offers distinct advantages At Great Place to Work®, we often hear small and medium-sized companies (those with fewer than 1000 employees) bemoan their size as an impediment to building a great workplace.
5 Simple Tips To Keep Your Small-Business Finances In Order
After starting three small businesses, I’ve learned firsthand the headaches that accounting causes for most small business owners. It’s one of those back-office tasks that never cross your mind when you decide to run your own business ..
What is Inbound Marketing and How Can it Help Indian SMEs Get More Business Online?
Inbound marketing is the art of pulling in people to your brand than pushing your brand to people. Inbound marketing is gaining momentum all over the world for one reason – it is extremely effective and in several ways better than outbound marketing.
A slew of measures are in the pipeline to boost funding for the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) including making listing norms easier for these companies and a bankruptcy code among other measures.
From the streets of Lucknow to building one of the largest adtech companies in the world – Mohit Saxena, co-founder InMobi
Mohit Saxena is one of the busiest people you’ll ever meet. It was easier for me to interview Bjarne Stroustrup, the Inventor of C++. It took us four rounds of scheduling and cancelling before we could get to the interview.
How Dhruv & Kaushal Goyal's 3yr-old startup ExclusiveLane.com is on track to generate Rs 3.5 crore
Since his college days, Dhruv Goyal, 28, dreamt of building a business that could harness the power of the Net. "I was fascinated by Internet start-ups," he says.
" Advertising is of the very essence of democracy. An election goes on every minute of the business day across the counters of hundreds of thousands of stores and shops where the customers state their preferences and determine which manufacturer and which product shall be the leader today, and which shall lead tomorrow. "
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:
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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This Newsletter is edited by the FISME Secretariat. We welcome contributions as well as comments and suggestions. Please write to newsletter@fisme.org.in
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Recently, the RBI Governor also highlighted the need to improve ‘ease of doing business’. He is reported to have said that a local bureaucrat armed with archaic laws could be a real tyrant for small entrepreneurs. Any state which is serious in promoting MSMEs must have an effective Feedback cum Grievance Redressal Mechanism under direct supervision its Chief Political head. Such a mechanism at the District and the State level should be chaired by DMs and Chief Secretary respective with representation from all industry related departments. People should be encouraged to file their comments/ complaints on a portal which are taken up for time bound resolution with all proceedings placed in public domain.
As such a mechanism would allow collation, sorting, aggregation and analysis of grievances, it would lead to identification of the systemic elements in complaints of similar nature. The ‘identified systemic complaints’ can be taken up separately with the concerned department Heads and handled on different footings to form part of ‘reform agenda’.
"
FISME organised “Awareness Programmes on Quality Management Standards and Quality Technical Tools” (QMS/QTT) under NMCP scheme sponsored by Development Commissioner, Ministry of MSME, Govt. of India.
In a nationwide series of 8 programmes spread across eight states, FISME in association with its industry partner, Federation of Small & Medium Industries (FOSMI) and Santiniketani Artistic Leather Goods Manufacturers Welfare Association successfully organised another one in the series of awareness programme on Quality Management Standards (QMS) and Quality Technical Tools (QTT) with special reference to Leather Sector at Santiniketani Leather Association Seminar Hall, Santiniketan, Birbhum on Saturday 10, January 2015.
FISME organised ‘Profit Mantras for Business”- yet another programme in a nationwide series of workshops for bringing in practical wisdom to entrepreneurs on 21st January 2015 at Hotel Manohar in Hyderabad.
Mr. Satsh Gottipati, Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME) gave the welcome address. Mr. Amish Agarwal, Credit Works gave a presentation on finance. Presentation giving an insight into New Style of Information Technology was given by Mr. Ramanjanyulu, Hewlett-Packard India. Mr. C. Kutumba Rao, Vice Chairman, State Planning Board, Government of Andhra Pradesh gave the Keynote Address.
The programme was attended by Mr. Nageshwar Rao, President, FETSIA, Mr. A.P.K.Reddy, President, FSME and Mr. Hanumantha Rao, President, FASMME.
The India MSME Summit (Telangana)- jointly organized by Govt. of Telangana and FISME, was held on 30th January 2015 at Hyderabad.
The Summit was inaugurated by Jupally Krishna Rao, Minister for Industries, Handlooms & Textiles and Sugars, Govt. of Telangana. He also released the new industrial Policy of Telangana during the Summit.
Welcoming the delegates FISME President Dr. D. Gandhikumar called upon the new state to pay adequate attention to ease of doing business to attract investment and creation of small enterprises. “Most issues that MSMEs find difficult to deal with while setting up new enterprises or running the existing ones relate to States and therefore a new state like Telangana can move faster in easing regulatory burden and write on clean slate without any regulatory baggage”, he added.
Entrepreneurs have got it wrong about education. Traditional models of sitting in classrooms listening to lectures have passed their sell-by date. The future lies in experiential learning by doing.
“It’s like learning to ride a bike, you push the pedals, you fall, you get back up, you adjust and try again,” says Juris Ulmanis, Latvian-based co-founder of global entrepreneurship educational platform Experiential Simulations, where students hone their entrepreneurial skills by behaving like entrepreneurs.
A former senior manager at Motorola, founder of two companies, for the past decade, Ulmanis has been a university professor teaching entrepreneurship in Latvia, Germany, Poland, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark.
The government has pressed the accelerator on reforms, fast tracking a faltering disinvestment programme, fixing a base price for auction of 3G spectrum and deciding not to appeal a decision by the Bombay High Court, which had quashed a transfer pricing-related tax demand on Vodafone, keeping its vow of a non-adversarial tax regime.
The Centre on Wednesday notified stock exchanges that it would sell up to 10% in Coal India on Friday, a transaction that could fetch as much as Rs 24,000 crore, more than half the selloff target of Rs 43,425 crore for FY15. It has raised only Rs 1,700 crore till now. While the decision on CIL stake sale was cleared by a high-powered ministerial panel headed by FM Arun Jaitley, all other decisions were taken by the Cabinet, which met on Wednesday afternoon.
With a total production of 83.20 million tonnes (MT), India remained the world's fourth-largest steel producing nation for the fifth year in a row in 2014 as well, according to data compiled by World Steel Association (WSA).
In fact, there was no change in the world order of steel production in the past year with China remaining at the top, Japan second and the US at the third position, producing 822.7 MT, 110.66 MT and 88.34 MT of steel, respectively.
India was at the third position in 2009, but it has been at the fourth place since 2010.
The country steel production was 68.97 MT in 2010, 73.47 MT in 2011, 77.26 MT in 2012 and 81.29 MT in 2013.
There is little doubt that when it comes to smart cities, it's the Asia-Pacific region that is going to see the most action in the next few years. According to a report, 22 out of 37 major smart cities across the world are likely to come up in the APAC region by 2022.
Since it is technology that forms the connecting cord of smart cities, IT Infrastructure players are keen to tap into this substantial opportunity. The Japanese IT major, Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) is no exception. Primarily known as a storage company, HDS has, over the past few years been redefining itself as an IT infrastructure player, with some good results. Some of the city transformation projects that HDS is doing in countries in the APAC region are likely to help the company in lapping up smart city contracts in India.
Giving a fillip to the programme of developing smart cities in the country, the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has signed three Memorandums of Understanding on cooperation to support the development of smart cities in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh with the respective state governments.
“The MoUs with specific reference to development of Allahabad, Ajmer and Visakhapatnam as smart cities were signed in the presence of Minister of Urban Development, M Venkaiah Naidu here on Sunday,” an official release said.
India Ratings & Research has revised its cement sector outlook for FY16 to “stable”, from “stable to negative” a year ago, on expectations that demand growth at 8 per cent would outpace supply additions at 6.7 per cent in FY16.
Cement capacity utilisation which was around 71 per cent in FY14 is likely to improve to 73 per cent to 75 per cent in FY16, the ratings agency said in its report.
The southern region, with a significant over—supply, is likely to maintain a supply discipline during FY14— FY16 with a capacity addition of just 7 mtpa over this period. This is expected to improve cement capacity utilisation in this region to 61— 63 per cent in FY16 from 56 per cent in FY14.
The union steel and mines ministry has sought an immediate hike in import duty on finished steel to 10% from the present level of 5 to 7.5% and a withdrawal of duty on raw materials like, iron ore and coking coal in the light of surging steel imports.
While these have been part of its Budget recommendations, the move gathered significance recently with the ministry shooting off an urgent letter to the finance ministry to implement a pre-Budget change in duty rates.
The move, if implemented, will bring much needed cheer to domestic steelmakers grappling with rising imports and scare raw materials, the ministry's suggestion against lowering export duty on iron ore will disappoint the mining sector players.
Giving emphasis to safety at the workplace for achieving competitiveness and sustainable manufacturing growth, various small, medium and large manufacturing units were honoured today for their excellence in safety systems.
Secretary, Department of Public Enterprises, K D Tripathi gave away the 4th FICCI Safety Systems Excellence Awards for manufacturing at a FICCI event here, as per an official release.
In the small scale industry sector, ITC Limited, SBU: PPB, Munger bagged the gold award and Halla Visteon Climate Systems India Pvt Ltd, Bhiwadi bagged the silver award.
Industry body Assocham and the Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICAI) have jointly set up the country's first 'Virtual Centre for Development of MSMEs'.
"The Centre will cater as a facilitator to MSMEs by addressing their issues, connecting them to global research and development (R&D) centres, strengthening industry-academia partnership, skill up-gradation and conducting product/industry specific seminars and workshops," as per a vision document released at a conference here today.It was released by A.S.Durga Prasad, president, ICAI, Ravindra Sannareddy, chairman, Assocham, Southern Regional Council, and D.S. Rawat, national secretary general, Assocham.
The Centre aims to reach out to about 30 million MSMEs, educate at least 50,000 MSME units about exports, assist about 20 million budding entrepreneurs, train at least 10 million non-skilled/semi-skilled people across India and assist at least 500 MSMEs to produce innovative products, it said.
With an aim to open a world of opportunities to Indian coir and natural fibre manufacturers, Coir Kerala 2015, the biggest international event of its kind will be held in Alappuzha district from February 1 to 5.
Organised by the Government of Kerala, the five day event will showcase the best coir products to the world and bring together over 170 foreign and 300 domestic buyers with a representation from 46 countries.
Most of all, it will provide a platform for sellers, industry experts, trade bodies, organisations and policy makers to interact, share knowledge, exchange ideas on latest products, display products and services, seek new business opportunities.
As many as 950 global and domestic exhibitors, particularly from the MSME sector are current showcasing a wide range of products at the International Guwahati Trade Fair (IGTF) which started today at Maniram Dewan Trade Centre here.
The week long 22nd edition of the event organised by Industries and Trade Fair Association of Assam (ITFAA) will provide a major impetus to the Make in India policy.
The trade fair will provide the participants an opportunity to promote their products, expand market and meet potential buyers from across the country and all over the world during the trade days.
The sectors being represented at the fair are agriculture, automobile, packaging, steel, stationary, cosmetics, jewellery, consumer durables, information technology, textiles, electronics, food, chemicals, building construction materials and leather sector.
Considered the oldest and largest consumer goods fair in North East India, it is the only international exposition in the region with both B2B and B2C components.
NSIC a public sector enterprise under the Ministry of MSME, Government of India signed an MoU of Cooperation with Black Business Council (BBC) of South Africa for developing youth owned enterprises in South Africa in the presence of Kalraj Mishra, Minister of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises in South Africa.
The MoU, besides cooperation in MSME sector, also focuses on BBC’s efforts to economically empower the marginalised group in South Africa through NSIC’s Rapid Incubation Programme. BBC plans to establish five such Rapid Incubation Centres in South Africa in cooperation with NSIC.
With the country's economic growth slowing down, China is doubling down its policies to support its small business sector. Last year, a preferential income tax policy was introduced to provide a corporate income tax rebate to low-income SMEs. Similarly, another measure exempted such SMEs from value-added or business tax. Recently, it was announced that more funds would be released to banks and they, in turn, must lend on to SMEs meeting certain criteria. These kind of measures clearly show the firm commitment and genuine political will of the Chinese leaders to promote their SME sector.
Like India, China has no such investment limit in case of SMEs. The definition is a bit complex instead. The criteria of classifying SMEs are formulated by the government agency in charge of enterprises under the State Council of China, according to a number of factors including, employees, annual revenue and total assets. However, the main emphasis is placed on earning of revenue by a firm. Indian SMEs have long been demanding for a revenue-based classification and it is surprising that our policy makers are always turning a blind eye to this demand.
According to the FISME Factor, With the RBI slashing the repo rate by 25 bps to 7.75 per cent, 43 percent of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) think that it will have a positive effect, 57 per cent think it will have no effect, whereas none think it will have a negative effect.
When it comes to engaging employees, being small offers distinct advantages At Great Place to Work®, we often hear small and medium-sized companies (those with fewer than 1000 employees) bemoan their size as an impediment to building a great workplace.
After starting three small businesses, I’ve learned firsthand the headaches that accounting causes for most small business owners. It’s one of those back-office tasks that never cross your mind when you decide to run your own business ..
Inbound marketing is the art of pulling in people to your brand than pushing your brand to people. Inbound marketing is gaining momentum all over the world for one reason – it is extremely effective and in several ways better than outbound marketing.
A slew of measures are in the pipeline to boost funding for the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) including making listing norms easier for these companies and a bankruptcy code among other measures.
Mohit Saxena is one of the busiest people you’ll ever meet. It was easier for me to interview Bjarne Stroustrup, the Inventor of C++. It took us four rounds of scheduling and cancelling before we could get to the interview. 
Since his college days, Dhruv Goyal, 28, dreamt of building a business that could harness the power of the Net. "I was fascinated by Internet start-ups," he says.
" Advertising is of the very essence of democracy. An election goes on every minute of the business day across the counters of hundreds of thousands of stores and shops where the customers state their preferences and determine which manufacturer and which product shall be the leader today, and which shall lead tomorrow. " 
