India

India's manufacturing growth from 1989 to 2010 displays two intriguing properties: 1) a substantial fraction of absolute and net employment growth is concentrated in informal tradable industries, and 2) much of this growth is connected to the development of one-person establishments.

Kailash Baheti is the Chief Financial Officer of Magma Fincorp in India. As he helps strategize the company’s future growth, his responsibilities include planning for, and controlling the capital and revenue expenditures, while continuously working towards achieving the planned profitability and looking at acquisition opportunities for inorganic growth.

Bandhan Bank Managing Director and CEO, Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, advised the MSME units in the country to select best chartered accountants, saying "It is not your cost, but an investment."

"The signature of a reputed CA or CA firm boosts banks' confidence. I have also seen MSME units approach banks through agents. That is not the right way. Banks are not comfortable with agents. Connect to the banks directly and you will receive all possible support," Ghosh said.

SME Finance Forum member OPIC has arranged for private sector Yes Bank to receive $150 million funding from the U.S. government and Wells Fargo. Funding is meant to increase lending to support women entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises in India.

SME Finance Forum member, SIDBI, has created a program to address the challenges the MSME sector faces regarding credit. The Certified Credit Counsellor program for the MSMEs is a response to the findings of the 4th MSME census that revealed only 7 percent of SMEs can avail financing from organizations. This provides an opportunity for the growth in the sector by focusing on ways in which the credit related issues could be resolved.

Eight Regional Rural Banks and Urban Co-operative Banks have signed MOUs with SME Finance Forum member SIDBI (The Small Industries Development Bank of India.) In an effort to boost MSME financing, the new partnership will focus on increasing credit flow to the ‘missing middle’ – micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the region.

SIDBI also plans to extend capacity building support to handle micro enterprise loans to MSMEs in West Bengal, Eastern and North Eastern India.

It took almost a decade since the SME Exchange has been formalised to see 60 floats in a month. Still the total number of listings on the SME bourses is not something that the growing Indian economy can be proud of.