SMEs have emerged as the most vibrant sector of the Indian economy accounting for about 95% of industrial units in the country. The sector contributes approximately 40% of value edition in manufacturing and around 45% exports. It has emerged as a panacea for providing employment to around 42 million persons and promoter of inclusive economic growth.
The Planning Commissions Working Group on SMEs for the 11th Five Year Plan has estimated that SMEs need approximately Rs3000 billion in working and term loans during the plan period. This sector remains neglected since long time; a reliable database on the sector concerning with heterogeneous range of activities is the need of hour which would boost the proper policy framing.
The next step should be developing a capital market exclusively for SMEs on the lines of Alternate Investment Market (AIMs) of London, NASDAQ, NSE and even NIKKEI have separate windows for small companies. Earlier OTCEI and INDONEXT were promoted by BSE for the same purpose albeit both experiments failed; hence optimum precaution must be put in place in any further endeavors in this regard.
In present circumstances SMEs are unable to borrow sufficient funds that is absolutely alarming for both the immediate and long term perspectives; the share of Micro enterprise in net bank credit witnessed a sharp decline from 42 percent from 2002-03 to 2.8 percent in 2007-08.
The share of enterprise with an investment below Rs5 lakh fails more drastically from 2.2 percent to 1.6 percent of total bank credit over the same period. Besides SMEs sector also requires dedicated Venture Capital Funds that must be willing to invest anything between Rs2 crore and Rs50 crore to facilitate innovation in SMEs.
Presently, Private Venture Capital funds prefer to invest Rs50 crore or more and are hence irrelevant to SMEs. In view of the enormous demand for equity capital for SMEs in the country, a major initiative is required in this direction.
Challenges are heading much faster; according to All India Census (2001-02), only 14.2 percent of the registered and 3.09 percent of the unregistered Small Scale Industries (SSIs) had availed themselves of bank finances.
SMEs are vehicle of inclusive with huge potential for employment generation, therefore it wouldn’t be viable to surpass the rudimentary requirements of this sector; Basel II Norms on Banking Supervision and Mandelson plan in UK could be the fine example before Indian government to infuse financial support to SMEs.
MSMEs (Medium and Small Scale Industries) Act, 2006 modified the title enterprise instead of industry to provide proper recognition to the service sector and conferred pride of place to Micro-enterprises; ceilings are also redefined now as up to Rs25 lakh is called a Micro enterprise, up to Rs5 crore Small enterprise, up to Rs10 crore as Medium enterprise.
These modifications necessitate for change in lending pattern of financial institutions; adjustment must be made to tap the various financial requirements of SMEs. Task force constituted by the Central government and initiation of SME Rating Agency (SMERA), a group venture of SIDBI, Dun & Bradstreet Information services India ltd and several leading banks of the country are welcome initiatives for the sake of SMEs and hope that it would boost the much needed morale of entrepreneurship in the country.
Atul Kumar Thakur
October3rd2009, New Delhi
atul_mdb@rediffmail.com
Showing posts with label Enterpreneurship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Enterpreneurship. Show all posts
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Must Innovate but Cautiously
Recently I have attended many events on entrepreneurial innovations including last one at FICCI (8th September, New Delhi); the theme of conference was Making India an Innovation Hub, which was quite noble from the perspective of spurting faith in entrepreneurial potential in the country. Indeed innovation is imperative in every domain in life since it has creative bearings over a potential target, so it’s a sort of energy that’s capable to harness the skills along with imparting conduce ground for entrepreneurship.
Without even a bit of hassle it could be said that presently Indian business seems badly thirsty for the drops of innovation; India being a billion plus size country with its sub-Saharan infrastructure erstwhile remained focused on conservative and cumbersome path of development which normally came out with many depressive impediments.
Choosing the path of mixed economy, Indian economy have been consistently coping up with ideological fractions in political- economic circle that caused for its sluggish development until ushering into phase of liberalization in early nineties, somehow in compelled situation.Crux of the matter is either Socialism or Capitalism let allowed a national economy to grow in its fundamental fervors unlike the Indian experiment with mixed economy which with many languishing political decisions remained standing in bizarre situation.
Any way it doesn’t mean to say that concept of mixed economy was proven failure in Indian circumstances instead its maligned political handling that undermine the potential growth of Public sector enterprises which further dampen the socialistic temptations of economy.
Despite such frills some Public sectors enterprise have proved their worth; performances of Public sectors banks including Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) could be counted in these lists as they more or less remains unaffected through global financial crisis. Here it may takes into long introspection that how these banks remain unaffected?
But a simple answer could be that these banks were less integrated with the fluctuating global businesses albeit it wasn’t an innovation or any counter of such propositions; it was merely an act of inaction regarding the myopic financial routes like hedge funds and other derivatives product that finally saved them from losses. Sometimes inaction is better than action as in this case but that approach shouldn’t be germed in minds for all actions.
Some time back,United Kingdom released the Turner’s review report on financial meltdown which lay out the main themes behind the acute financial failures in western countries.As per the report that mechanized experiments in the name of innovation and blind move for creating bigger entities was the major cause of failures for financial sector players in Europe and U.S.A. Joseph Stiglitz expressed similar contention that bigger entities needs bigger supervision and regulation without having such backups sometimes makes business vulnerable for failure; of course efficiency maters more than the giant sizes of a business entities in most of conditions.
A true innovation can be panache for empowerment of its practitioners besides fuelling growth in productive activities; there are many subtle experiments in our daily life that deserves more proper consideration for its institutional and professional advancement from the respective policy makers.
Persons like Prof. Anil Gupta (IIMA, National Innovation Foundation, SRISTI and Honey Bee Network)is doing exemplary jobs to conserve and retrieve the extinct traditional knowledge and infuse lease for curious observations from bottom of pyramids. Campaign like Universal Financial Access (UFA) evangelizing by eminent banker Mr. Sanjaya Bhargava and others like minded peoples for attaining the goal of complete financial inclusion in early next decades, its theme (Billions through innovations) presents a sanguine picture for innovation that reflect the rosy outcomes of innovative thoughts.
It’s quite alluring to feel that Mr. Sanjaya Bhargava has entered in such arena after leaving his phenomenal stint in City bank where he heading for corporate charges that have very few similarity with such grass rooted and non-profit movement; he is a man of focus and he deserves applauds for such though innovation.
Mr. Mahendra Pratap is next name (President, iMFAST and co-founder NCR Tech Group) in this series; he is similarly the doyen of innovation who relentlessly keeps striving for technological innovation in Indian financial sector with motives to spread its easy reach to the common masses. Spreading of ATM network including with some bio-metric applications, electronic payment to workers of NREGA, door banking, mobile banking,24@7 banking etc are some outcomes of meticulous innovation that maximizing faith in financial inclusion movement.
Innovative ideas in thoughts, services and action are very essential for encouraging and rationalizing socio- psychological perceptions and its development among the all age groups since innovation hardly need any specific age to materialize. Like many other positive ideas, an innovative proposition also requires some rudimentary cautiousness that must be followed to avoid any future chaos; what we have witnessed through financial sector failures in U.S.A and all over the world. Positive restraint would even enhance the capability of an innovation… we must deliberate under our own imposed disciplines that would further take us into an ethical level playing field.
Atul kumar Thakur
September9th 2009, New Delhi
atul_mdb@rediffmail.com
Without even a bit of hassle it could be said that presently Indian business seems badly thirsty for the drops of innovation; India being a billion plus size country with its sub-Saharan infrastructure erstwhile remained focused on conservative and cumbersome path of development which normally came out with many depressive impediments.
Choosing the path of mixed economy, Indian economy have been consistently coping up with ideological fractions in political- economic circle that caused for its sluggish development until ushering into phase of liberalization in early nineties, somehow in compelled situation.Crux of the matter is either Socialism or Capitalism let allowed a national economy to grow in its fundamental fervors unlike the Indian experiment with mixed economy which with many languishing political decisions remained standing in bizarre situation.
Any way it doesn’t mean to say that concept of mixed economy was proven failure in Indian circumstances instead its maligned political handling that undermine the potential growth of Public sector enterprises which further dampen the socialistic temptations of economy.
Despite such frills some Public sectors enterprise have proved their worth; performances of Public sectors banks including Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) could be counted in these lists as they more or less remains unaffected through global financial crisis. Here it may takes into long introspection that how these banks remain unaffected?
But a simple answer could be that these banks were less integrated with the fluctuating global businesses albeit it wasn’t an innovation or any counter of such propositions; it was merely an act of inaction regarding the myopic financial routes like hedge funds and other derivatives product that finally saved them from losses. Sometimes inaction is better than action as in this case but that approach shouldn’t be germed in minds for all actions.
Some time back,United Kingdom released the Turner’s review report on financial meltdown which lay out the main themes behind the acute financial failures in western countries.As per the report that mechanized experiments in the name of innovation and blind move for creating bigger entities was the major cause of failures for financial sector players in Europe and U.S.A. Joseph Stiglitz expressed similar contention that bigger entities needs bigger supervision and regulation without having such backups sometimes makes business vulnerable for failure; of course efficiency maters more than the giant sizes of a business entities in most of conditions.
A true innovation can be panache for empowerment of its practitioners besides fuelling growth in productive activities; there are many subtle experiments in our daily life that deserves more proper consideration for its institutional and professional advancement from the respective policy makers.
Persons like Prof. Anil Gupta (IIMA, National Innovation Foundation, SRISTI and Honey Bee Network)is doing exemplary jobs to conserve and retrieve the extinct traditional knowledge and infuse lease for curious observations from bottom of pyramids. Campaign like Universal Financial Access (UFA) evangelizing by eminent banker Mr. Sanjaya Bhargava and others like minded peoples for attaining the goal of complete financial inclusion in early next decades, its theme (Billions through innovations) presents a sanguine picture for innovation that reflect the rosy outcomes of innovative thoughts.
It’s quite alluring to feel that Mr. Sanjaya Bhargava has entered in such arena after leaving his phenomenal stint in City bank where he heading for corporate charges that have very few similarity with such grass rooted and non-profit movement; he is a man of focus and he deserves applauds for such though innovation.
Mr. Mahendra Pratap is next name (President, iMFAST and co-founder NCR Tech Group) in this series; he is similarly the doyen of innovation who relentlessly keeps striving for technological innovation in Indian financial sector with motives to spread its easy reach to the common masses. Spreading of ATM network including with some bio-metric applications, electronic payment to workers of NREGA, door banking, mobile banking,24@7 banking etc are some outcomes of meticulous innovation that maximizing faith in financial inclusion movement.
Innovative ideas in thoughts, services and action are very essential for encouraging and rationalizing socio- psychological perceptions and its development among the all age groups since innovation hardly need any specific age to materialize. Like many other positive ideas, an innovative proposition also requires some rudimentary cautiousness that must be followed to avoid any future chaos; what we have witnessed through financial sector failures in U.S.A and all over the world. Positive restraint would even enhance the capability of an innovation… we must deliberate under our own imposed disciplines that would further take us into an ethical level playing field.
Atul kumar Thakur
September9th 2009, New Delhi
atul_mdb@rediffmail.com
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