Dr. Kalam unveils the SME Handbook for Entrepreneurs
During an ICICI Bank initiative along with CyberMedia to focus on SME CEOs Dr. Kalam unveils the SME Handbook for Entrepreneurs
Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Former President of India unveiled a unique Handbook for Entrepreneurs, an ICICI Bank initiative in association with CyberMedia at a special event late Tuesday evening to mark the launch of SME CEOs Knowledge Series (an ICICI Bank initiative along with CyberMedia), an innovative nation-wide program to equip the Small and Medium Enterprises with skills and knowledge relevant to their sector.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Kalam said, “This initiative will create larger awareness among the small and medium enterprises spread across the country. The SME Handbook will be handy in creation of new enterprises, enhancing the productivity of present SMEs, reducing the sickness among SMEs and above all increasing the throughput of the SMEs significantly.”
ICICI Bank, India’s second largest bank, has partnered with CyberMedia, a specialty media house, to launch this program to empower the CEOs of various SMEs by providing a platform for knowledge sharing and joint learning.
Dinesh Rai, Secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India said, “The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises sees the contribution as well as the vast potential of Indian entrepreneurial enterprises. The Government is making all efforts to strengthen MSMEs to enable them to face competition in liberalized economy.”
K Ram Kumar, Group Head HR, ICICI Bank, said, “I believe that the biggest of the multinationals worldwide started as a SME. Today, at this platform, I would like to exhort our Indian counterparts that they should scale up their ambition and focus on achieving the large multinational status within a decade. There is no time more opportune than now for this transformation to happen.
“The SMEs need to alter the mindsets on primarily two fronts. One, think BIG, take the world as their market, adopt disruptive and not best practices. Secondly, look for talent not only in urban India but in the non-traditional places in India. This will help them to harvest talent from where no one is focusing on and not compete in an over-priced urban job market,” added Mr. Ram Kumar.
Vijay Chandok, Global Head, SME Business, ICICI Bank, said, “ICICI Bank’s initiative is the result of a continued dialogue with the SME community and reflects our deep commitment to further the cause of entrepreneurship.”
Pradeep Gupta, Chairman, CyberMedia said while the fresh entrepreneurial talent enters the ecosystem, the existing SMEs need to move towards clusters for International competition, “The initiative is aimed at helping entrepreneurs convert their dream and vision into reality. The world has taken notice of India’s entrepreneurial spirit. Our effort is to ensure that the aspirations of budding entrepreneurs are not stemmed for want of reliable information.”