Meta Partners ONDC To Enable Small Businesses Build Conversational Buyer-Seller Experiences on WhatsApp

• Meta will enable and educate small businesses, through an ecosystem of our business and technical solution providers capable of building seamless conversational buyer and seller experiences on WhatsApp.
• With you ONDC partnership, Meta will digitally upskill five lakh MSMEs through the Meta Small Business Academy.

Meta, the parent of social media giant Facebook, today announced its partnership with Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to enable and educate small businesses in building seamless conversational buyer and seller experiences on WhatsApp through an ecosystem of Meta's business and technical solution providers. As part of this collaboration, ONDC will help these business solution providers become seller apps, bringing the businesses they service onto the ONDC network and helping them drive commerce.

To kick-off the partnership, over the next two years, Meta will also digitally upskill 5 lakh MSMEs through the Meta Small Business Academy. Born out of Meta's commitment to up-skill 10 million small businesses across the country, Meta Small Business Academy offers a certification to empower entrepreneurs and marketers to gain critical digital marketing skills to grow on our apps.

“At ONDC, we are committed to accelerating and democratizing the digital landscape and towards that, we aim to empower MSMEs, help them build digital visibility, and boost their businesses. Today, for any business to grow, it is critical for them to market themselves and reach a wider audience. Our partnership with Meta will not only digitally upskill these businesses but will also enable them to connect with a customer base far and wide. I am confident that our collaborative efforts will pave the way for millions of small businesses by providing them with the right impetus for growth.” – T Koshy, MD & CEO of ONDC. 

“India’s digital transformation story is unfolding at a revolutionary pace, and for this growth to continue, we need the right ecosystem and partnerships that enable millions of small businesses to build and deepen their digital presence. Meta has been a frontrunner in partnering with the government and the industry to advance digital inclusion, especially for MSMEs across India. Our partnership with ONDC builds on supporting the government’s vision for Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and furthering our ongoing commitment to skilling small businesses and aiding this rapid digital transformation and growth story in the country.” – Sandhya Devanathan, Vice President, Meta in India. 

As part of the partnership, Meta will also support Sahayak, ONDC’s WhatApp chatbot, in enhancing the services offered on the bot as the single point of seller communication and customer communication for ONDC.

Earlier this year, Meta launched ‘WhatsApp Se Wyapaar’ program to upskill 10 million traders across 29 states in 11 Indian languages on the WhatsApp Business app. Today, there are more than 200 million users of the WhatsApp Business app across the world, and more than 60% of people on WhatsApp in India message a business account.

In April this year, Meta partnered with NIESBUD, AICTE and CBSE, to train students, Entrepreneurs, Startups and small-businesses in Digital Marketing. The partnership agreement was inked through Ministry of Education, Ministry Skill Development & Entrepreneurship.

Finance Platform Tide to Incubate 5,00,000 Women-led Small Businesses in India by the End of 2027

Aims to support women in India to start and run their own businesses

Launch ‘Tide Women Entrepreneurs Mentorship Programme'

Create an internal Women in Business Mentor Panel for advisory services

Tide, the UK’s leading business financial platform1, with operations and an imminent launch in India, today announced their target of supporting 500,000 female-led businesses, start out by the end of 2027.

This move comes on the heels of Tide’s ‘Women in Business’ initiative in the UK and the company’s plan to work as an incubator for women business owners in India. Through this initiative, Tide aims to help women led SMEs start and grow their businesses.

Today women run fewer than 13 percent of businesses in India. The primary reason for this low representation of women in business is access to finance. Nearly 20 percent of women entrepreneurs face rejection by lending institutions, more than twice the rate of 8 percent for men. Other key challenges that hold back women entrepreneurs include, absence of support networks and financial inclusion.

To further power the company’s vision for women entrepreneurs, Tide has also created an internal Women in Business Mentor Panel under their 'Tide Women Entrepreneurs Mentorship Programme'. The internal panel will feature in-house experts in Leadership, Marketing, Capital Investment, Hiring and Payroll, Taxation, and Legal, among others to provide one-on-one advice and host regular masterclasses, webinars, and AMA sessions for women entrepreneurs.

Gurjodhpal Singh CEO Tide IN

"Tide believes that there is a huge untapped potential for women entrepreneurs to contribute to the Indian economy. We want to support entrepreneurial women in their journey and believe we’re in a strong position to do exactly that. From the lessons learnt by working with small businesses every day in the UK, we understand the support and guidance needed to crack it as a small business owner. We believe this mentorship programme will not just prove instrumental in addressing their financial challenges but will also foster digital inclusion," says Gurjodhpal Singh, CEO, Tide (India).

The mentorship panel will also play an advisory role for women-led small businesses and support them with tracking progress and reporting issues.

Select Tide employees who will be part of this mentor panel have been chosen based on the specific domain knowledge they possess. The business financial platform also plans to partner with external mentors, who have or are working in the MSME space, to play an advisory role in the programme.

About Tide:

Founded in 2015 and launched in 2017, London-based Tide is now the leading business financial platform in the UK. Tide helps SMEs save time (and money) in the running of their businesses by not only offering business accounts and related banking services, but also a comprehensive set of highly usable administrative solutions. Tide has over 400,000 SME members in the UK (7% market share).

Tide has been funded by Apax Digital, Anthemis, Augmentum, Creandum, Goodwater, Jigsaw, Latitude, LocalGlobe, Passion Capital, SpeedInvest and The SBI Group. It employs 800+ professionals worldwide, has recently been awarded the UK Fintech Awards' ‘Banking Tech of the Year’ and is among the Sunday Times Fast Track Disruptors to Watch. Tide has a long-term ambition to be the leading business financial platform globally.

Tide selected India as its first international market in 2020. With over 350 highly skilled employees in India, most based in its Hyderabad technology centre, Tide is presently ramping up operations for a full-fledged launch in India later this year.

1 Tide is not a bank and does not hold or claim to hold a banking license.Tide is a business financial platform and the leading digital challenger in business banking services. We believe that a platform approach is the future of business banking, allowing us to offer both financial and admin services to SMEs, saving them time (and money) to allow them to focus on what they love: running their businesses. Tide Business Accounts are hosted and virtual debit cards are provided through our partner bank which is an RBI-licensed bank. Tide follows all security standards prescribed by the partner bank, in accordance with RBI regulations.

Payment Innovations Empowering Small Merchants in India

By Sameer Chugh, Co-founder & Director, Mosambee

India is on the cusp of a transformative digital payment revolution. A decade ago, it wasn't easy to imagine a world without cash. In fact, cash was king. However, the introduction of simple, convenient and secure solutions have drastically changed how billions of Indians access and interact with money. The advances in digital payment solutions that support low-value payments have made us a champion in real-time payment.

The exponential growth in digital payments has demonstrated the impact simple innovations can have on remote areas in the country. And, the omnipresent pandemic gave the much-needed push to take these solutions to the last mile operations. With every aspect of digital payments evolving, Digital India is poised to contribute 2.2% to the global digital payment market by 2023.

Building a financially inclusive digital economy

Digital payments have become much more than a convenience — they can accelerate business growth. Beyond ease-of-transaction, there are many economic benefits to building a financially inclusive digital economy. For MSMEs, adopting reliable, accessible and low-cost payment infrastructure can improve digital adoption and help gain access to institutional credit for further business expansion.

Moreover, digital payments can help unlock new revenue streams, help manage finances, increase the consumer base and explore more tools to automate operations. Merchants that can leverage payment infrastructure can get a competitive advantage through deeper insights.

The fintech companies in India have realised the potential of digital MSMEs and are increasingly building solutions that can change the face of small businesses. They understand that they need to address individual pain points to drive digital transformation while also keeping in mind their larger goal to develop a solution that addresses all the pain points under one roof.

Small innovation making a big difference

Even the slightest improvement in payment infrastructure can significantly boost small businesses. For instance, the evolution of the PoS machine from computer-driven cash register to mPoS and SoftPoS. That’s precisely why there’s a significant improvement in simple yet innovative payment solutions being offered to small businesses in recent years. It can be as basic as creating awareness about digital payments. The exponential growth of Phonepe, PayTM & GPay serves as the best examples. Phonepe kept merchant acceptance at the heart of their strategy and focused on building solutions that can empower consumers as well as merchants. In just 5 years since launch, Phonepe facilitated 22.4 billion transactions to date across 19,098 pincodes and saw a whopping 1.4 billion merchant payments in three months. The best part is nearly 80% of their transactions come from tier 2, tier 3, tier 4 cities and beyond.

The strategy worked for companies like Zyadashop and Dukaan as well, albeit for a different product altogether. Zyadashop’s young founder, Satyajit was baffled by the process employed by small local merchants, trying to sell their product online. His simple idea was to help merchants learn the basics of e-commerce. He introduced an application for small merchants to create an online store for their products online.

Yet another bottleneck in integrating digital payment infrastructure was inability to accept all kinds of payments. Mosambee endeavoured to resolve this problem with solutions like Tap on Phone service which enables merchants to accept all digital payments including Credit/Debit Cards without the requirement of a card machine. This purely digital app reduces merchant operating costs on rentals and maintenance of POS machines.

Today, merchants are not only able to offer digital payment modes but also facilitate easy EMIs to improve consumer experience. There are solutions like digital khatabook that allow merchants to manage every process digitally from accepting payments, recording transactions, and credit management.

Most of these initiatives are immensely successful and receive the much-needed policy support like Digital India policy from the Government of India. These policies are not only helping fintech develop solutions but also helping companies shape the future of digital payment like accepting digital payments without internet connectivity.

However, while India is leading a strong position in the global payment space, it is yet to explore the potential of transforming the manual, disconnected and unorganized retailers to achieve financial inclusion. We might find it challenging to become a completely cashless society until we develop an ecosystem that ensures financial services and easy credit is made visible and available for vulnerable and low-income sections through digital mediums.

Biz2Credit to Invest USD100 Million in India Over Next 5 Years

Biz2Credit, provider of an online marketplace for small business funding, eyeing expansion in India by making an investment of USD100 million over the next 5 years. The company has clocked a significant growth in business in India in the last few months with a lot of new client wins. Thus, seeing this potential of the Indian market, the firm is poised for even a greater leap and investing hugely in operations in India. The investment will be spent mainly in R&D, operations, and building the workforce. The company is bringing a lot of new employment opportunities for the young graduates in the country in both technical and service-based roles.

Biz2Credit was founded in 2007 and is backed by Nexus Venture Partners. Since its inception, Biz2Credit has become the leading online marketplace for small business funding, having arranged more than $8 billion in small business funding for thousands of companies throughout the U.S. Biz2Credit is expanding its industry-leading technology in custom digital platform solutions for leading banks and other financial institutions, investors and service providers in the U.S., India, Australia, and Canada.

Biz2Credit is the company behind Biz2X, a global SaaS platform that enables financial institutions to provide a customized online lending experience for their small and midsize business customers. The flagship Biz2X platform has been completely conceptualized, designed and developed in India and is the epitome of “Make in India” in the global market. Recently, the company has expanded its footprint in Singapore and Dubai and signed contracts with leading Banks in both countries.

Commenting on this big announcement, Mr. Rohit Arora, CEO & Co-Founder, Biz2Credit said,” We are delighted to see such massive growth in our business in India, this gives us the hope to further invest in Indian operations. Despite the uncertainties that two waves of the Coronavirus pandemic unleashed, we have clocked a massive growth in the revenue with 15-plus new client wins and eyeing a greater leap in the next 10-12 months. He further added, “I want to applaud the government’s initiatives for bringing ample of new opportunities for the Fintech sector which gives the sector a quantum leap. The fintech business model is now working with a remarkable and consistent framework that enables entrepreneurs, business owners, proprietors, and even banks and NBFCs to go through huge information and make better choices in their businesses.”

Adding to the announcement, Mr. Vineet Tyagi, Global CTO and Country Head, Biz2Credit India said, “The Indian market holds immense potential for Fintech companies like ours and it is extremely important for our next phase of growth. We at Biz2Credit support the government's mission of the Make in India program by making huge investments in Indian talent and portraying India as a hub of R&D on the global front.” He further added, “Our employees are our greatest asset, as we are looking for a multifold growth in the coming 10-12 months, we are aggressively hiring for both service-based and technical profiles to strengthen our white-labeled platform.

About Biz2Credit

Biz2Credit is a digital-first provider of small business funding. Biz2Credit leverages data, cash flow insights, and the latest technology to give business owners an automated small business funding platform. Since its inception, Biz2Credit has been the best place for small businesses to get funding online. With over 350 employees globally, our team – made up of top-notch engineers, marketers and data scientists – is building the next generation in business lending solutions.

Freemasons of Telangana Distribute Tools to 30 Street Vendors, Petty, Small Traders and Women Doing Business From Home to Re-start Their Livelihood Which They Lost Due to Pandemic

Mr. Rajeev Ramkrishna Khandelwal, Grand Moster of Grand Lodge of India along with 30 petty traders, beneficiaries who received tools from Freemsons of Telagana

Freemasons of Telangana distributed on Saturday evening in a brief function held at Goshamahal Baradari Masonic Building, tools to 30 street vendors, petty, small traders and women doing business from home to re-start their livelihood which they lost due to Pandemic

It was done for the 6th time in a row. And so far 180 people have benefited. It was done under the initiative ‘Gift-A-Livelihood’, which Freemasons of Telangana embarked on in August last year. Since then six times the distribution of the tools was taken up at different intervals.

The funds required for the initiative are contributed by members and philanthropic individuals. The major portion of today’s distribution was sponsored by Dallas Area Telangana Association and Lodges(clubs).

An initiative of Freemasons of Telangana to support petty traders, street vendors, small businessmen, women restart their business.

Gift-A-Livelihood, an initiative of Freemasons of Telangana, where it distributed tools to 30 petty traders to restart their business lost due to pandemic

Mr Rajeev Khandelwal, Most Worshipful the Grand Master of Grand Lodge of India the head of Freemasonry in India; Mr Anish Kumar Sharma, Grand Master Elect and Right Worshipful the Regional Grand Master, Regional Grand Lodge of Northern India; Mr Madan Mohan Lal, Mr G. Maddulette, Mr D. Ramchandram, the three Assistant Regional Grand Masters graced the function.

The spouses of these guests Mrs Bandana, Mrs Madan Mohan Lal, Mrs Jaya Madduleti, Mrs Kalpana gave away tools to the beneficiaries. The 30 beneficiaries include those who want to set up a Tea-Stall; Bangles Store, stationery Shop, Isthri Shop (pressing clothes), Tailorshop, Tiffin Center etc. They have come from different parts of Telangana.

The notable thing in this round of initiative is that there is a teacher, Mr Srisailam, a private teacher from Warangal who lost his job and now is working as a Shepherd. He wants to set up a Tiffin Centre for which he sought utensils. There are a couple of more teachers, who lost their job and learnt tailoring as an alternative livelihood and want to set stitching centres.

Gifting livelihood makes more sense than feeding. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. With this noble thought, the Gift-A-Livelihood started last year. ‘Gift a Livelihood’ to someone who needs it the most. It helps someone earn a better and more sustainable living. Today we ‘gifted a livelihood’ to a person and persons who we believe are hardworking and motivated but lack the right skills and tools for the job. I am sure they will make use of it. Many beneficiaries in the past who we visited are doing well and making dignified livelihoods. They have been earning a comfortable living and are happy with the kind of work they have been getting.

Wasabi Raises $1.8 Mn Seed Funding Led by Ankur Capital To Reimagine ‘Hubspot’ for Small Businesses in India

Founders - Wasabi

The startup will use the funds to build a strong engineering team, develop their product offering and create early customer traction.

India, July 29th 2021: Bengaluru-based tech startup, Wasabi (Truegrit Technologies Private Limited) has raised $1.8 Million in a seed round led by Ankur Capital. The round also saw participation from Binny Bansal backed 021 Capital, Sparrow Capital and notable angels like Ankit Bhati (Ola), Mekin Maheshwari (Udhyam Learning), Lalit Keshre (Groww), Revant Bhate (Mosaic Wellness), Abhishek Goyal (Tracxn) and Ashish Goel (Urban Ladder) among others. The funds raised will be utilized to build a strong engineering team, develop their product offering and create early customer traction.

Founded in January 2021 by Pradeep Dodle and Nikhil Goenka, Wasabi is building an easy-to-use communications and growth platform for small and medium businesses in India to help them manage customer relationships better and grow their business. With their deep domain and product expertise, spanning stints at PhonePe, Flipkart and Ola, the team aims to address the challenges that SMBs face in providing high quality digital experiences to customers.

According to industry estimates, there are more than 60 Mn registered small and medium businesses in India and many millions more home based businesses. While consumers are increasingly going digital, these businesses are lagging behind in embracing new technologies that could help them become more data-driven while also catalysing a more contextual real-time engagement with their customers. The team believes the next 3-5 years will be transformational where millions of these small businesses will go digital to survive and thrive.

Pradeep Dodle, Co-Founder, Wasabi, said, "With an increasing number of customers going digital, and intense competition from large ecommerce platforms, many small businesses are facing an existential threat. We believe that they can thrive only by going digital while continuing to build closer relationships with their customers and providing them with personalised service. We are excited to partner with Ritu and the team at Ankur Capital as we get started on this journey."

Nikhil Goenka, Co-Founder, Wasabi, added, “The biggest moat for small businesses is their relationship and proximity to customers. While they do this exceptionally well offline, they are struggling to extend the same experience digitally. They juggle with multiple apps and find it complex to manage. We want to simplify this, help them build stronger customer relationships and grow their business.”

Ritu Verma, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Ankur Capital, also shared, “We are excited to partner with Pradeep and Nikhil to reimagine the millions of small businesses in India and enhance their capabilities. We see SMBs as the backbone of Indian commerce and the opportunity to expand their offerings and grow their businesses to compete in the new digital age as table stakes. Simple, easy to use products will define winners in tech and we believe the team at Wasabi is already well on its way in building a world class product!”

About Ankur Capital

Ankur Capital (https://www.ankurcapital.com/) is an early stage venture capital fund focused on transformative technologies for the Next Billion Users. Established in 2014, its investment thesis underscores the emerging opportunities created by the growing aspirations and greater digital access of this audience. The following portfolio companies successfully illustrate Ankur Capital’s highly differentiated thesis: CropIn (SaaS solutions for farmers, present in 53 countries); String Bio (alternative protein generation from methane); Niramai (AI-powered thermal imaging for breast cancer diagnosis); and Captain Fresh (aggregators of fresh seafood across select states). Considered a pioneer in India’s agtech investments, Ankur Capital incubated ThinkAg, the country’s first think tank in the agritech space. Its founders are consistently counted amongst India’s top AI influencers. With the second fund, Ankur Capital strengthens and deepens its commitment to and investment expertise in agtech and healthtech, and expands its reach through opportunities across fintech, edtech, localisation, and insurtech.

About Wasabi

Wasabi is on a mission to help small businesses grow their sales via their customer interaction and growth platform. They are reimagining ‘Hubspot’ for small businesses in India, through which they aim to make it easy for merchants to convert conversations to sales on any channel and make use of simple marketing tools to retain loyal customers and attract new users. This is a massive global opportunity and the SMB market is growing exponentially with the mass adoption of UPI and COVID related disruptions. Millions of businesses en-mass have switched to using tech to solve their problems & do it better. This is at an inflection point and they feel that SMB enablement will be one of the biggest opportunity areas of the next decade.

Best E-Commerce Platforms for Small Businesses in India

There are many reasons which have caused the evolution of e-commerce platforms. Buying decisions and buying patterns were hugely impacted by excessive usage of social media by people. Thus, consumers pushed businesses to come online and maintain a strong online presence. If businesses do not have an online presence, their products will be taken with a pinch of salt. This gave rise to e-commerce platforms slowly.

There are many e-commerce platforms in India that are ideal for small businesses. Small businesses can use them and propagate their objectives and mission on the website.

1. WooCommerce

This is an e-commerce plugin that allows clients to build an ecommerce website by using WordPress website. This is a perfect e-commerce free plugin for small as well as large-sized platforms. This plugin was launched in 2011. Since then, the plugin has become popular for its simple and unique features. It saved a lot of money for businesses by allowing them to install and create an ecommerce platform for free.

2. OpenCart

This is a PHP-based online solution that offers a good opportunity to create a less-demanding e-commerce website. OpenCart offers various lucrative features such as a sorted order processing method, organized and efficient inventory functionality as well as other important features of an e-commerce platform.

There are free as well as paid extensions and modules to select. You can pick up a solution that suits your interest in the best way. One of the greatest advantages is that it is a user-friendly website, which makes it easy to use the website.

3. Shopify

This Shopify is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms that are renowned widely for its convenient set-up, quick load-speed, and safe payment options. This is an online Company that allows anybody to establish their shop and sell products online. It offers instant solutions to the users who create their website in a matter of a few minutes.

If you choose to create your shop at Shopify, you will find it extremely easy to add items, customization of designs, setup of the domain name, payment settings, and shopping. All of these functions can be performed in a flash on the Shopify. This makes it one of the best e-commerce platforms in India.

4. Magento

This is a free-edition platform for small businesses, which can be utilized by online businesses without any costs. No doubt, Magento is the leader of e-commerce platforms that offers the most lucrative and beneficial ecommerce platform offers than all others. If you choose to establish your online shop using the open-source framework of Magento, you will surely love the web portal feel of your website. Magento also hands you control of the content and functionality of your website. This is a versatile online store that performs flexibly and highly.

The main aim of Magento is to allow thousands of businesses to grow and develop with the help of flexible cloud solutions. Vendors, who create shops online, get themselves reviews by other top websites. Reviews increase the trust of consumers in the products. RevExpo is also one such website that offers high-quality, authentic, and tested reviews of products.

5. ZenCart

This has been made specifically for online vendors who would like to establish their shop online. This is an open-source online e-Commerce platform that has over 1 Lakh+ stores. Vendors, belonging to different parts of the world, had built these shops.

The main reasons behind the grand success of ZenCart are its user-friendly interface, easy-to-understand features, and hundreds of built-in add-ons. Users can download and modify these add-ons as per their requirements.

On the ZenCart, vendors also get to analyze and track the performance of their products. It gives them proper insight into performance reports of their products. So, vendors improve likewise and attain inevitable success on the platform.

6. 3dCart

3dCart is one of the oldest companies that offer SaaS products for their ecommerce merchants. 3dCart has continuously upgraded themselves by improving, optimizing, and upgrading their features now and then. Customers, who do not have high budgets, can use versatile and innovative solutions offered by the website. Due to its flexible and affordable plan, this is the best e-commerce platform for India.

3dCart consists of everything that is required by an entrepreneur. With hundreds of mobile-friendly themes, users can publish a website that fits their requirements well. 3DCart offers convenient, safe, and secure payment options.

7. BigCommerce

BigCommerce holds great significance in the eCommerce platform market. BigCommerce Next (BCN) has increased its overall value in the market of the eCommerce development platform. It can speed up the performance of your business without any costs. Blogging structure is the special BigCommerce feature that simplifies the advertisement tasks for users. You can utilize the power of BigCommerce to create and promote your online shop.

Conclusion

In addition, these are some of the highly admirable -  e-commerce platforms for small businesses in India.

One more platform that deserves an honorable mention is Zyro, a drag-and-drop website builder tool that is suitable for beginners which allows you to easily make a website from scratch without any prior coding or design skills and experience. In addition, these are some of the highly admirable - e-commerce platforms for small businesses in India.

deAsra Crosses 100,000 Small Business Platform Users, announces the Back on Track Program

PUNE, India, Sept. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- deAsra Foundation is now a family of 100,000 dePreneurs - small business users of the deAsra platform resources and services.

In the journey of reaching the 100K milestone, deAsra feels happy to share that it was able to cater to the needs of businesses from various sectors such as food, beauty, fashion, etc. From business planning to business growth, deAsra provides growth catalysing resources that accelerate entrepreneur journeys from start to end.

With deAsra's dedicated Platform for MSME, the team onboards 5,000 new business users every month.

"Reaching the 100K dePreneurs milestone quickly was possible due to the platform resources being online and for use by small business owners from any place, at any time. Access to more than 40 business services that are typically required in a business journey is mapped out and accessible at deasra.in," says deAsra's CEO Pradnya Godbole.

On this occasion of crossing 100K beneficiaries, deAsra announces the 'Back on Track' program. A unique FREE Program for 20 B2C businesses from cities of Maharashtra. The program will enable 20 small businesses to get back on their feet with an extensive 8-week program, with only 4 hours per week required from the participant small business owner.

  The 8-week Online Program will include

1. Expert-led workshops on digital marketing & cash flow management
2. One-on-one action planning and reviews with mentors 
3. Exciting rewards for the top 3 with the most growth

deAsra aims to fast-track the recovery process of businesses in cities of Maharashtra by focusing on increasing their customers and their cash in hand.

The need for the Back on Track initiative

The MSME sector has been hit the most due to the ongoing pandemic and large percent of Indian small businesses have been adversely affected due to the lockdown. The new normal requires a different way for businesses to operate, and businesses need to adapt and learn new techniques quickly in order to recover and thrive again. This Program attempts to accelerate this recovery process and get businesses back on track to succeed in the new normal. The participant businesses will get an opportunity to talk about their journeys and business on deAsra's social channels.

Top 3 businesses which show the most growth at the end of the 8-week Program will receive a cash reward of 75k, 50k and 25k respectively, Rs 10K worth deAsra's service credits along with Social Media Marketing package for 3 months worth Rs 20K. 

The reward also includes an Online Store Subscription for 1 year worth Rs 10K. The application has started for the Back on Track program. Small businesses from Maharashtra who wish to apply for the program can visit https://www.deasra.in/entrepreneur-excellence-awards/

The last date of application is September 16th, 2020.

About deAsra Foundation

deAsra is a not-for-profit organisation that helps entrepreneurs Start, Manage and Grow their small businesses, recently celebrated the milestone of supporting and guiding 100,000+ aspiring & existing, small business entrepreneurs.

In U.S. , Amazon is Investing $18 Bn in 2020 to Help Small and Medium-Sized Businesses Grow Their Sales

• More than 25,000 entrepreneurs and brand owners are set to attend Amazon Accelerate this week, the company’s largest-ever U.S. event dedicated to seller success
• Amazon has launched more than 135 new tools and services this year to help sellers manage and grow their businesses, including new ways to connect brands with customers
• Amazon announces it will spend an additional $100 million this year to promote small businesses during Prime Day and through the holiday season
• Amazon commits to educate and support more than 500,000 U.S. SMBs and onboard 100,000 new U.S. sellers, helping them succeed and build thriving businesses selling with Amazon

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced it is on course to invest $18 billion this year to help independent businesses sell to customers, including investments in logistics, tools, services, programs, and people. Since the beginning of the year, Amazon has launched more than 135 free tools and services to help sellers grow their sales in Amazon’s store. In the next twelve months, the company will provide more than 500,000 U.S. small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) currently selling on Amazon with online selling guidance, education, and support, and the company plans to onboard an additional 100,000 U.S. businesses as new sellers in its store. The announcements were made at Amazon Accelerate – a three-day virtual summit for U.S. SMBs who are currently selling in Amazon’s store or interested in doing so.

Amazon Accelerate is the company’s largest-ever U.S. event focused on providing existing and aspiring sellers with insights and ideas for how small businesses can thrive in Amazon’s store. Despite the impact COVID-19 has had on small businesses, many American SMBs selling through Amazon have experienced continued growth. Third-party sellers continue to account for more than half of all units sold in Amazon’s store, and even during the pandemic, third-party sales continued to grow faster than Amazon’s first-party sales. In the twelve-month period ending in May, American SMB sellers sold more than 3.4 billion products, up from 2.7 billion year-over-year, and averaged $160,000 in sales, up from approximately $100,000 a year prior. Accelerate features Amazon executives, sellers, and independent online selling experts sharing insights on how sellers can sustain and grow their companies through 2020 and into the future.

“At Amazon, our mission is to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, and part of fulfilling that mission is connecting small businesses with customers,” says Jeff Wilke, CEO Worldwide Consumer at Amazon, who opened the event with a fireside chat with Dharmesh Mehta, Vice President, Customer Trust & Partner Support at Amazon. “Amazon’s success is directly tied to the success of independent businesses across the U.S. We are passionate about supporting small businesses, investing and inventing on their behalf to help them be resilient through COVID-19 and beyond.”

Amazon also announced plans to invest an additional $100 million to help small businesses around the world increase their sales and reach new customers this Prime Day and throughout the holiday season. Last year during Prime Day, third-party sellers – mostly SMBs – exceeded $2 billion in global sales. This new investment will go toward putting a spotlight on the diversity of small businesses selling in Amazon’s store, positioning them for increased sales during Prime Day and throughout Q4. Further details will be announced closer to Prime Day.

Amazon has launched 135 free tools this year for sellers to help them gain insights, protect and build their brands, and delight customers. For example, “Repeat Purchase Behavior” provides insights that let sellers leverage data on how customers engage with brands. “Brand Follow” represents Amazon’s investment in customer relationship management tools, allowing sellers to connect with customers who have shown an interest in the brand through features like personalized posts on the homepage.

To learn more about the millions of small and medium-sized businesses growing with Amazon, visit: aboutamazon.com/supporting-small-businesses.

About Amazon

Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon.

Source -Press.aboutamazon.com

Older PCs can Double Productivity Losses of SMBs in India - Microsoft study

• PCs that are over 4 years old have 3.2X likely chance to be repaired resulting in 132 hours of productive time lost which is 2.2X of newer PCs 


• SMBs keen to make the shift to Windows 10 for elevating business growth, improving workforce productivity and reducing operational costs

Small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India with PCs that are more than four years old and running older operating systems can experience more than double productivity losses as compared to newer PCs. Not just work efficiencies, older PCs expose organizations to security vulnerabilities and IT threats. Nearly 43% SMBs still own PCs that are more than four years old and are running older operating systems.

These findings were revealed in the latest Microsoft study in partnership with global SMB IT market research and analyst organization TechAisle, which polled almost 2,000 SMBs across Asia Pacific.



SMBs that have already embraced modern workplace strategy have experienced higher productivity, reduced costs, and enhanced security. 95% of the SMBs surveyed agreed that adopting new PCs has reduced overall maintenance costs and 83% of them has seen higher productivity benefits.



Farhana Haque, Group Director – Devices, Microsoft India said, “Technology can be a real enabler for businesses, both small and large, and SMBs need to recognise the value that IT investment can bring to their present and future growth. SMBs employ over 110 million people in India, significantly contributing to India’s economic growth. Microsoft is helping SMBs in India realise their ambitions and succeed in this competitive marketplace.”

According to the study, the continued delay in SMBs’ adoption of newer technological infrastructure across business functions, was due to factors such as perceived app incompatibility and high costs associated with acquiring and maintaining new IT hardware and software. Nearly two-thirds of SMBs surveyed (66%) said they did not have a PC refresh policy nor were they actively pursuing it.

However, the reality is that the lack of a strategic PC refresh policy can result in greater repercussions in the long run. There is a 3.8 times higher chance of old PCs requiring repairs, which can result in at least 132 hours’ worth of productive time lost. 

Ways to narrow the technology adoption gap include cloud adoption and Windows-as-a-Service. SMBs can refresh their older PCs as Windows-as-a-Service provides security patches and regular OS updates for optimized use. Concerns over app compatibility are addressed with Windows 10, the most app-compatible version of Windows-to-date with best practices including app telemetry, ISV partnerships for diagnostic data and troubleshooting as well as looping feedback cycles.  With the upcoming Windows 7 End of Support, SMBs have to make their shift towards newer PCs and operating systems as users will no longer receive security updates or support for PCs running on Windows 7. This includes new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options, and online technical content updates. 

HDFC Bank, CSC launch Credit Card for Small Traders, Village Entrepreneurs

HDFC Bank and CSC Tuesday launched a co-branded 'Small Business MoneyBack Credit Card' for small traders and village level entrepreneurs (VLEs).

The credit card is specifically designed for CSC's VLEs, and VLE-sourced customers, and will give users easy access to credit for their day-to-day business expenses, according to a statement.

Launched by HDFC Bank MD Aditya Puri and CSC Chief Dinesh Kumar Tyagi, these personalised cards were handed out to a few women entrepreneurs during the occasion, said a report by PTI



CSCs act as access points for delivery of various services and there are 3.6 lakh such centres operating across the country.

At present, as much as Rs 70,000 crore worth of business is transacted through the network of Common Services Centres (CSCs), which apart from providing a platform for essential government and public utility services also deliver a range of social welfare schemes, financial services, education and skill development courses, healthcare, agriculture services and digital literacy.

In in July 2018, HDFC Bank and CSC had entered into a pact as part of which the bank will offer various products and services in remote locations to VLEs enrolled with CSCs.

Last year in May, fintech startup ePayLater partnered with IDFC Bank to bring instant digital credit to individuals transacting online and offline, using BHIM UPI using ePayLater’s ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ thereby aiding small businesses and merchants alike.

In January 2018, IndusInd Bank and Dynamics Inc. together launched India`s first battery-powered, interactive payment cards, which was announced at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (“CES”).

Last November, Amazon and ICICI Bank together launched credit card for its Prime customers that leverages shopping expenses into reward points. The co-branded credit card launched is closely tied with ‘Amazon Pay’, the online payment platform of Amazon Christened, ‘Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card'.

5 Simple But Unorthodox Tricks To Make A Small Business Stand Out

Making a small business or even a growing company stand out among the competition is always easier said than done. Usually it’s all you can do to stay afloat in the early years, and focusing on beating out other stores or brands seems like an immense ordeal. Then, once you do focus on it, it can begin to seem like all the tricks have already been tried. This is just how it goes in a world that has more companies and startups in it with each passing day.

Sometimes though, some outside-the-box thinking can solve the problem, and give you a way of making your business stand out.

1. Focus On Your Blog

Taking this one from the ground up, you should absolutely have a blog, no matter what your business happens to do. A lot of companies, stores, and even online companies that don’t directly require a blog neglect to post one, and as a result they fail to engage with online visitors as comprehensively as they could. Making your blog stand out is a process, but if you post up-to-date articles on topics that are even loosely relevant to your business, you’ll effectively add a small news and communications element to the company. And that alone will likely be a generous step beyond much of your competition.

2. Create A Charitable Twist

This is a specific example, but think about what makes Toms so much more popular than dozens if not hundreds of similar shoe companies. It isn’t the fact that prices are low, nor that the slip-on shoes are lightweight and machine washable. It’s that Toms was designed with a one-for-one model that earned it a lot of press coverage and made consumers want to buy shoes so that more shoes could be donated. The company’s success is clear evidence that people like to do good through their consumerism if at all possible. Any business hoping to set itself apart should look to do the same. The one-for-one model is difficult and only works for certain kinds of companies or products, but it’s the more general idea that should be imitated far and wide.

3. Accept Cryptocurrency Payments

Opportunities to spend bitcoin both in person or online are still fairly scant. This makes cryptocurrency a little less useful than some hoped it would be by now, but it also makes it such that businesses that do accept cryptocurrency tend to stand out. This, coupled with the rise of point-of-sale systems for cryptocurrency, make it an interesting idea to attempt to differentiate yourself this way. It’s a slight hassle, and some business owners would undoubtedly not want to bother with it. However, it may be a hassle that’s worth it, simply because crypto acceptance is more or less newsworthy.

4. Create Tab-Style Payments

The idea of tab-style payments is not quite as widespread even as cryptocurrency, but it’s something you can see modeled here and there - must notably at online casinos. At these sites, people can pay via phone bill, such that they never have to make direct payments, present credit card information, or really anything else. An actual store offering a similar service - with more of a tab than a phone bill, of course - would actually be quite original, and might just result in an excellent customer experience. Say, for instance, that you could allow customers to set up a bill at the end of each year. It’s a good bet that those customers would enjoy the feeling of patronizing your business for free in the moment, even with the knowledge that they’ll eventually be paying.

5. Just Be Weird

This may not sound like particularly serious advice, but if you’re thinking that way, you may already need to loosen up a little bit. Yes, running a business is a serious endeavor, and there are some rigid aspects to it. However, no matter what a given business actually does, it will always stand out more if it shows some personality, and ideally a bit of a sense of humor. This can be done through advertisement, a social media channel, or even from how employees interact with customers or clients, if such interactions are to occur. There aren’t specific guidelines with this idea. Just remember that normal blends in and weird stands out, and so long as you aren’t overbearing or off-putting about it, you probably prefer the latter.

Traders' Body CAIT Demands Govt to Launch E-Marketplace to Help Small Traders

Traders' body for for small traders and businesses in India, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), has urged the government to launch an e-commerce marketplace portal in partnership with trade associations where small traders, artisans and women entrepreneurs can sell their products in a 'fair and transparent manner'.

CAIT has also sent a letter to India's Union Minister of Commerce Suresh Prabhu alleging "that the e-commerce business in India is highly vitiated and has been gripped by a few big online companies who are indulging into predatory pricing, deep discounting and loss funding" against the FDI (foreign direct investment) guidelines of the government.

"The government in association with trade associations should launch an e-commerce marketplace portal where small traders, artisans, women entrepreneur and others can sell their products in a fair & transparent manner," CAIT said to Prabhu.

In the letter to Prabhu, the traders' body also demanded early announcement of an e-commerce policy and formation of a Regulatory Authority to monitor the e-commerce business in India.

In September too, CAIT had written to the Commerce Minister urging him to take serious action against e-commerce firms including Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal etc. for disregarding FDI norms listed for such players by engaging in retail trading activities. In the official complaint, CAIT has claimed that the e-commerce companies are indulging in a "blatant violation" of the FDI (policy).

It is to be noted in order to promote small traders in India amid uprise of big e-commerce players, CAIT -- back in November 2015 -- had also launched its own e-commerce portal named as "e-Lala" and back then, the portal was inaugurated by the then Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu. However, the portal did not worked as expected and tanked eventually, unable bring considerable businesses for small traders in India.

Source - Firstpost

Atal Innovation Mission to Launch Innovation Challenge , Set Up 100+ Incubators Across India

Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), a flagship initiative set up by the NITI Aayog, have two major announcements about its plan for fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in India in coming year of 2019.

5,000 startups from 100+ Incubators

In an event in Hyderabad on Friday, Mission Director of AIM, Ramanan Ramanathan, had told that AIM is setting up over 100 world class incubators in universities and institutions across India and each of these incubators will foster at least 25 to 30 startups every two years.

"We have launched 101 incubators of which 30 are operational already, and the rest will be operational by the end of next year,” he said, adding that funding of Rs 10 crore is being given to each incubator to provide necessary support to the startups.

AIM is expecting to have over 5,000 startups coming out of these 101 incubators over the next four years.

Through these incubators called as Atal Incubation Centres (AICs), AIM intends to support the establishment of new incubation centres that would nurture innovative start-up businesses in their pursuit to become scalable and sustainable enterprises.

Innovation Challenge for Helping Small Businesses

To inculcate innovation among small businesses in the country, AIM is also coming up with an initiative, which will be an Innovation Challenge, for innovators to come up with an idea that help small businesses in the country. The creative ideas shortlisted in this challenge wold then be funded in order to transform ideas into solutions.

A formal announcement of the innovation challenge program will made early next year.

"The number of researchers per 10 lakh population was very low at 222 in India, while the number was beyond 4,000 in countries like Sweden, Taiwan and South Korea," said Ramanathan.

Set up as an umbrella organisation to align innovation policies between central, state and sectoral innovation schemes for innovation and entrepreneurship.

In this year, Atal New India Challenges and Atal Grand Challenges have already been launched this year by AIM to support technology-driven innovations and product creation for social and commercial impact, said the AIM website.

AIM also include establishment and promotion of Small Business Innovation Research and Development (AIM SBIR) at a national scale for helping SME/MSME besides startups, and rejuvenating Science and Technology innovations in major research institutions of the country like CSIR (Council of Scientific Industrial Research), Agri Research (ICAR) and Medical Research (ICMR) aligned to national socio-economic needs.

Source - Business Line, Zeebiz

India is World's Most-Preferred Destination for Starting Business

India is a land of contradictions. While Indian government programmes like “Start-Up India” failed to support startup ventures in the country leading to more startup failure then success we see, a latest study has something otherwise to say. A latest study conducted by SEMrush, an online digital marketing suite, has revealed something opposite to the popular belief that India is not a perfect place for starting a venture.

According to the study, India happens to have become the most-preferred destination in the world for starting a business, if one goes by the number of people searching for the best place to set up shop.

India leads the Top 10 globally most searched countries online for ‘starting business in’, revealed the study. Moreover, the study has also established the fact that India is not just a preferred choice for Indians to do business in their homeland, but is also becoming a priority for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) from across the world, according to a SEMrush official.

The study showed India is followed by Singapore, the Philippines and Australia as top globally searched nations.

According to SEMrush’s research on the term “How to start a business in…”, the top 10 most globally searched countries online are:

1- India

2- Singapore

3- The Philippines

4- Australia

5- Canada

6- New Zealand

7- Pakistan

8- South Africa

9- United Arab Emirates

10- Malaysia

Rohan Ayyar, Regional Marketing Manager India, SEMrush, says the number of SMEs in India is 4.25 crore, registered and unregistered, with over 10 per cent average growth rate. He was quoting a report by EVOMA. “The GDP contribution by SMEs is estimated to be around 6.11 per cent from the manufacturing and 24.63 per cent from the service sectors,” he said. SEMrush analysed the global search pattern for the last 12 months and looked for certain key search terms such as ‘how to start a company in’, ‘opening business in’, ‘found a business in’ and other related search queries.



Though Singapore is famous for its wide entrepreneurial opportunities, and the National University of Singapore, the oldest and the largest university in the country, ranks in the global Top 30 for its entrepreneurship centre and international outlook, the nation was at second spot, according to the SEMrush study. Ayyar said unemployment rate of 2.1 per cent and per capita GDP of nearly $53,000 tend to make Singapore’s economy one of the strongest on the world arena, and almost 99 per cent of it is powered by SMEs. It is no surprise that Singapore tops the list of countries where people are eager to found a firm, he said.

Ayyar added the results of search queries analyses over 2017-18 were greatly commemorative. “The search volumes for India were much higher in comparison with countries such as Australia, Canada and the UAE. The developments in PPP model and progressive policies and plans have further helped start-ups and businesses to grow, giving a great boost to SMEs.”

~ Via BusinessLine

[Top Featured Image by Francisco Arnela on Unsplash]

To Extend Loans to Entrepreneurs under Mudra Scheme, FinMin Ties-up with 40 Firms including Flipkart, Amazon, Ola, Uber

In order to facilitate easy loans to small entrepreneurs under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY), the finance ministry (FinMin) has tied up with upto 40 firms including over two dozen e-commerce firms, which include major tech startups like Amazon, Flipkart, Ola, Uber, MakeMyTrip, Zomato, Big Basket and Swiggy. Other non-tech firms with which FinMin has joined hands also include Amul and Patanjali, which are big job creators.

"We have identified about 40 companies as biggest job creators. These companies will identify people who need loans under Mudra Yojana, underwrite them and we will extend loans under the scheme," Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar told PTI.

"People who need money under the Mudra scheme approach the banks, but with this initiative the financial services department is trying to reach out to those who need loans for their businesses but have not approached the banks," he added.

PMMY is a flagship scheme of the government to provide loans of up to Rs 10 lakh to small entrepreneurs. The loans are being given by banks, small finance banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and micro finance institutions.

Rajiv Kumar further said, "There are companies like Ola, Flipkart, Uber, dabbawalas, cable operators, Zomato, which have several small entrepreneurs as partners who require loans. We want to extend support to them under the Mudra scheme."

"The bank looks for good entrepreneurs, the companies look for supporting their partners and we are just trying to connect these dots," he added.

Related Reading - 9 Schemes For Women Entrepreneurs In India

Under PMMY, loans are given by banks and MFIs under three categories — Shishu (loans up to ₹50,000); Kishor (loans above ₹50,000 and up to ₹5 lakh); and Tarun (loans above ₹5 lakh and up to ₹10 lakh).

The basic difference between a regular business Loan and a loan under Mudra scheme is that Mudra is collateral free loan, which means one can get a loan upto Rs 10 lakhs without giving any security. Besides, one can get a mudra loan even for new businesses and more importantly Mudra focuses on small businesses and micro-entrepreneurs, who are outside the service area of regular banks.

Last fiscal the government has extended Rs 2.53 lakh crore credit under the Mudra Yojana, while Rs 5.73 lakh crore has been extended in last 3 years.

Via - DNAIndia | Top Image - ManoramaOnline.com

To Extend Loans to Entrepreneurs under Mudra Scheme, FinMin Ties-up with 40 Firms including Flipkart, Amazon, Ola, Uber

In order to facilitate easy loans to small entrepreneurs under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY), the finance ministry (FinMin) has tied up with upto 40 firms including over two dozen e-commerce firms, which include major tech startups like Amazon, Flipkart, Ola, Uber, MakeMyTrip, Zomato, Big Basket and Swiggy. Other non-tech firms with which FinMin has joined hands also include Amul and Patanjali, which are big job creators.

"We have identified about 40 companies as biggest job creators. These companies will identify people who need loans under Mudra Yojana, underwrite them and we will extend loans under the scheme," Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar told PTI.

"People who need money under the Mudra scheme approach the banks, but with this initiative the financial services department is trying to reach out to those who need loans for their businesses but have not approached the banks," he added.

PMMY is a flagship scheme of the government to provide loans of up to Rs 10 lakh to small entrepreneurs. The loans are being given by banks, small finance banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and micro finance institutions.

Rajiv Kumar further said, "There are companies like Ola, Flipkart, Uber, dabbawalas, cable operators, Zomato, which have several small entrepreneurs as partners who require loans. We want to extend support to them under the Mudra scheme."

"The bank looks for good entrepreneurs, the companies look for supporting their partners and we are just trying to connect these dots," he added.

Related Reading - 9 Schemes For Women Entrepreneurs In India

Under PMMY, loans are given by banks and MFIs under three categories — Shishu (loans up to ₹50,000); Kishor (loans above ₹50,000 and up to ₹5 lakh); and Tarun (loans above ₹5 lakh and up to ₹10 lakh).

The basic difference between a regular business Loan and a loan under Mudra scheme is that Mudra is collateral free loan, which means one can get a loan upto Rs 10 lakhs without giving any security. Besides, one can get a mudra loan even for new businesses and more importantly Mudra focuses on small businesses and micro-entrepreneurs, who are outside the service area of regular banks.

Last fiscal the government has extended Rs 2.53 lakh crore credit under the Mudra Yojana, while Rs 5.73 lakh crore has been extended in last 3 years.

Via - DNAIndia | Top Image - ManoramaOnline.com

Sidbi VC funds disbursed Rs 540 cr to SMEs in India

The two major venture capital funds of the SIDBI (Small Industries Development Bank of India) - the National Venture Fund for Software and Information Technology Industry and the SME Growth Fund, which support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country, had disbursed Rs 540 crore (around $90 million USD) until March 31, 2014.

SIDBI Venture Capital Ltd (SVCL), a subsidiary of Sidbi set up in July 1999, is an investment management company, presently managing four venture capital funds - the National Venture Fund for Software and Information Technology Industry, the SME Growth Fund, the India Opportunities Fund and the Samridhi Fund. These VC funds provide assistance to knowledge-based micro, small and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs) in India.

The third fund unit of Sidbi - the India Opportunities Fund - which has a corpus of Rs 600 crore, has made a commitment of Rs 182 crore across 15 companies. This information was given by Kalraj Mishra, the Union minister of micro, small and medium enterprises, in a reply to a question in the Lok Sabha recently.

"Angel investment in India is still in its early stage and is not comparable to international levels particularly in comparison to the USA. However, access to angel funding in India is improving gradually," said Union minister Kalraj Mishra.

Notably, the government has allowed start-ups and SMEs in India to list on the SME exchanges without the mandatory Initial Public Offer (IPO) process, in accordance to which Stock Exchange Bureau of India (SEBI) has permitted listing without an IPO and trading of specified securities of SMEs, including start-ups, on the Institutional Trading Platform (ITP) in SME exchanges.

Number of companies listed on BSE SME platform as on July 31 was 63 and the capital raised by these companies stood at Rs 536.04 crore. The total turnover of these companies was Rs 2195.57 crore and their combined market capital was Rs 7,420.87 crore

SIDBI is a non-independent financial institution aimed to aid the growth and development of micro, small and medium-scale enterprises (MSME) in India.

More recently Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) also signed a loan agreement worth about Rs 1,800 crore with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for promoting energy efficiency in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

Indian Govt. to set-up Rs 5,000 crore ($1bn) fund for SMEs

Indian government is planning to set up a first of its kind co-investment fund to fund small and medium enterprises (SMEs). As per sources, the fund will set-uped with the help of the capital market regulator and have an initial corpus of Rs 5,000 crore which approximately more than $1 billion USD.

The SMEs fund will be backed by two state-owned financial institutions - Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). Sidbi was launched to promote youth entrepreneurship and startups inspiration.

The fund will be modelled around similar investment vehicles set up in developed nations like Germany and Austria, to address funding challenges to startups and entrepreneurs, especially in the high growth sectors like technology.

Stock Exchange Bureau of India (SEBI) is readying and finalizing framework for the fund worth Rs 5,000 crore and the announcement of same is likely in upcoming budget.

As per Business Standard, the proposal to set up a SME co-investment fund follows recent measures such as separate SME exchanges and the institutional trading platform (ITP), jointly taken by the finance ministry and Sebi in the past couple of years. ITP is a mechanism that allows an SME to list directly without an IPO.

Currently, about 60 small companies are listed on the SME exchanges of the BSE and the National Stock Exchange and currently there are approximately 30 million SMEs in India as per the definition of SME.

SMEs in India is considered as the backbone of economy contributing to 45% of the industrial output, 40% of India's exports, employing 60 million people, create 1.3 million jobs every year and produce more than 8000 quality products for the Indian and international markets.

Keys to Successful Business Plan : Infographic

When starting a business or a start-up you must have a clear vision of your purpose and goals. The best way to do this is through a business plan: a written, organized layout for how you want your business to start, perform and excel. Washington State University has created a infographic below on where you learn the essentials for creating a great business plan.

Although as stated, 27% of small business have never had a business plan but for a long term and to run a successful business one must. Though at first you must figure out why you need business plan anyway - are you searching for investors? or applying for business loan or making improvements in your existing business.

The infographic below, analyzed and depicts some major questions that aspiring business or start-up founders/CEOs must consider and raise questions to themselves like - what problem is my business going to solve, what's my company's mission, and what do we do better than anyone else in the market?

The infographic answers quite a few simple questions that will ease out your efforts making a successful business plan and execute it. Business without a plan is quite a risky approach to you ideas, market and revenues.

Notably, 64% of surveyed business owners with a business plan subsequently grew their business whereas 43% of those without a business plan could seldom say the same.