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- 6th edition of IndiaMART’s annual SME meet kickstarts in Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad, August 6, 2016: India is a market of opportunities, and entrepreneurs need to innovate 360-degrees; not just in products, processes and designs but also in execution. Within this, technology supports new and emerging businesses with proven methodology and tools to put their best innovative foot forward.
This was the conclusion of the inaugural leg of IndiaMART’s 6th Edition of Emerging Business Forum (EBF), held in Ahmedabad. The EBF is an annual ideas and knowledge exchange programme for SMEs conducted by IndiaMART, India’s largest online marketplace connecting buyers and suppliers, in association with ZEE Business. Starting its 6th edition from Ahmedabad, the Forum will go to 13 cities pan- India like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Jaipur, Indore, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Bengaluru, Surat, Pune, Hyderabad and Ludhiana.
With Business Innovation at its core, the Ahmedabad meet – attended by 200+SMEs — flagged off a series of multi-city exchange programme celebrating the spirit of entrepreneurship of the Makers of India – the MSMEs.
Dinesh Gulati, Director, IndiaMART, said, “IndiaMART has been playing a pivotal role in engaging MSMEs / SMEs of the country through its market place as well as various other on-line and off- line initiatives and EBF happens to be one of the key initiatives in that direction only. In the past 5 seasons of Emerging Business Forum, we have travelled across the country to interact with more than 50,000 SMEs and gave them a platform to interact with various industry leaders, successful entrepreneurs, policy makers and financial institutes. Business Innovation is a key factor to leverage many new entrepreneurial ventures and SMEs to the centre stage in India’s growth story. They are already on their way to become potential market leaders – some of them have even joined the ‘Blue Chip’ club within 3-7 years of their beginning. Technology has become an integral building block for most of these successful companies. They show that much more can be achieved given that MSMEs contribute 22% of GDP in spite of the fact that almost 45% of Indian manufacturing has its base among the emerging and small businesses. At IndiaMART we are sure that encouraging innovation along with their entrepreneurial spirit is the key to emerging businesses raising the bar for themselves.”
The speakers of the session included Mr Madhup Agrawal, Sr. Vice President IndiaMART, Mr Pradyumna Vyas, Director, National Institute of Design, and Mr Shailesh Patwari, President GCCI, among others. The stalwarts of the Industry shared their insights on the National and the Gujarat SME ecosystem.
Gujarat has long been referred to as the ‘Land of Entrepreneurs’ given Gujaratis’ business prowess and zeal. The state has been among the foremost to ensure a robust SME sector supported by excellent technical skills, expertise, business-friendly eco-system and proactive government initiatives. Such ground-level advantages have led to highly productive units within. A large number of manufacturing units in Gujarati are now being run by entrepreneur-turned-technocrats successfully catering to the global market. E-commerce has also helped SMEs go beyond the state’s boundaries.
Experts at the EBF highlighted Gujarat opting for progressive commercial models such as Cluster-Based Development Programme. The state has identified 76 manufacturing sectors to invest in where MSMEs have ready and active participation. This will not only ensure a robust manufacturing base within the geography but also encourage cross-vertical participation from the state business community.
The Ahmedabad EBF session specially stressed upon digitization to augment SMEs role in India’s growth. In order to be competitive, SMEs need to integrate technology in their businesses to keep pace with market trends, negotiate and improve overall operations, the participants said.
Read the coverages here.