The Economic Times,

It is time for Indian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to go beyond India, explore ‘Bharat’.” This statement by Professor Suresh Tendulkar gave a whole new dimension to the SME Conference 2011 organised by IndiaMART.com in association with TiE Delhi NCR recently at Hotel Sheraton, New Delhi. This year’s conference was centered around the theme of “Going Beyond India – Competing in a Globalised Economy”, underlining critical elements which vitalise SMEs for global competitiveness.

The day witnessed people like Uday Kumar Verma, secretary, Ministry of MSME, Suresh Tendulkar, chairman, Indian SME Knowledge Forum, director, Central Board of RBI & Former chairman, economic advisory council to PM, Pradeep Gupta, chairman and MD, CyberMedia Group, Dinesh Agarwal, founder & CEO, IndiaMART.com, Pavan Vaish, CEO, IBM Global Services, Brijesh Agrawal, COO, IndiaMART.com and Ajay K Koul, VP, business alliances, FIIT JEE.

Reiterating on the important role of SMEs in the growth and development of the economy, Dinesh Agarwal said: “Our SMEs have created immense employment opportunities for over 60 million people in the country. They account for approximately 45 per cent of the manufacturing output and 40 per cent of the total exports of the country. Certainly huge numbers but still leave a lot of room to achieve their full potential. These figures can grow manifolds if they possess competitive advantage over their counterparts in global markets.” He added, “At IndiaMART.com, we believe globally competitive and resilient SMEs are quintessential for further growth and development process of the Indian economy. Our association with TiE for the SME Conference is a step towards readying the Indian SMEs with such competitiveness.”

In the first session, Suresh Tendulkar shared macro perspective on making SMEs competitive in today’s globalised economy. He said: “Being globally competitive depends upon SMEs’ ability to take up challenges and tackle them.” He also highlighted that developed countries have aging population while developing nations have a working population and added, “In the coming times, growth rate in emerging markets will be much higher as compared to developed economies.” He concluded by bringing focus back to the country, saying, “Competitiveness needs to be built not only global markets but also for domestic. It is time for Indian SMEs to go beyond India, explore ‘Bharat’.” However, U day Kumar Verma elaborated on the challenges that prevailed in this sector such as credit, technology, infrastructure, marketing and skill development. Other sessions focused on topics such as, ‘SMEs – Expanding your horizon (setting up for a globalised economy)’ and ‘Scaling up – Practitioner’s Perspective’, ‘My Story Session’.

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