The SME conclave – conducted jointly by the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIM – L) and the Indian Industries Association (IIA) – witnessed the participation of representatives of the three pillar of the economy namely the polity, academicians and the practitioners. The conclave focused mainly on the two aspects concerning the SMEs – Free Trade Agreements and Low Cost Financing.
The first session was focused on the impact of the ASEAN free trade agreement on the Indian SME Sector and the experts who delved on it included Pravir Kumar, Joint Secretary, MSME, Profs. Sukumar Nandi, M Akbar, K G Sahadevan of IIM Lucknow and Prof Biswajit Nag of IIFT.
The experts talked about impact of the previous free trade agreements that India had with Thailand, Sri Lanka and Singapore. While the practitioners expressed concern over the upcoming FTA with ASEAN, the academicians helped them understand the benefits of having access to larger markets.
The academicians encouraged the practitioners to start thinking beyond national boundaries and try setting up manufacturing/service facilities outside the country. They also stressed on innovation and improving the scale of operations of the current SMEs.
The industry associations should appraise the government about their concerns so that detrimental decisions regarding the product lists involved in the FTAs are averted, stressed the experts. The conclave also proved to be platform for the delegates of the industry to clarify many doubts regarding the fine print of the FTA.
Other participants and experts included Mr. Chaubal of SBI, Mr. Gunasekharan of SIDBI, Venture Capitalists, Mr. Shailesh Vikram Singh of 2i Capital, Mr. Ajay Kapur of SIDBI Venture Capital, Mr. Paul Joseph of MCX-SX which is a stock exchange for SMEs in India and Prof Vinay Kumar of IIM Lucknow.
The bankers appraised the participants of the various products that have been designed specifically for the SMEs to reduce cost of financing. The Venture Capitalist explained their methods of financing organizations which had high risk profiles but very promising ventures. They explained how different financing options were available at each stage of the organizational life cycle.
Paul Joseph of MCX SX focused on the secondary market financing for SMEs and said that the SMEs were not big enough to register at the stock exchanges like NSE and BSE.
Prof Vinay Kumar discussed the perspectives of the investors in evaluating firms and suggested areas of improvement so that financing from alternate sources could be possible at lower costs.
The participants at the end of the day appreciated the creation of such a platform where they could pose their concerns and get instant solutions from eminent speakers.
Prof Nirjar of IIM Lucknow and representatives from the student committee Abhiyan told the congregation that the conclave was a step taken by IIM Lucknow to reinforce its commitment to the SME sector. “The institute has other training programs planned for the sector to empower the entrepreneurs to emerge as victors in the changing economic environment”, said Nirjar.
September (2010) 