The Indian SME sector plays a pivotal role in the overall industrial economy of the country. With its agility and dynamism, the sector has shown admirable innovativeness and adaptability to survive the recent economic downturn and recession.
In an effort to maintain their competitiveness Indian SMEs are looking to adopting information and communication technologies in a big way. New generation IT models including Software as a Service (Saas) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) are helping SMEs overcoming the technological divide by through innovative IT delivery and pricing models. While the extent of IT penetration in small enterprises is low, many medium sized enterprises have adopted technology in a big way to differentiate themselves from their competitors.
Financing for SMEs continues to be an area for improvement notwithstanding the increased options available to SMEs today to fund their growth. New products available from the banking system for working capital loans as well as availability of risk capital through private equity / venture capital have enabled SMEs to reach higher levels of growth.
Appropriate technology investments and adequate financing options are the twin engines which will fuel the growth of SMEs. To this end, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) have co-authored this report to understand ways of creating competitive Indian SMEs.