In a bid to empower micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the government has announced an initiative to onboard five lakh MSMEs on to the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).The initiative, called ‘MSME TEAM’, aims to provide financial assistance for onboarding, cataloguing, account management, logistics, packaging material and design of 5 lakh MSMEs on the ONDC network.

Half of these beneficiary MSMEs will be women-owned enterprises, said Union Minister for MSME, Jitan Ram Manjhi.

“MSMEs will be a key force in the movement towards Atmanirbhar and Viksit Bharat,” the minister added.

In a fast-changing industrial landscape, the MSMEs need to align themselves to adopting digital and technological solutions, the minister noted.

Another ministry initiative called the ‘Yashasvini’ campaign, is a series of mass awareness campaigns for formalising women-owned informal micro enterprises and providing capacity building, training, handholding and mentorship to the women-owned enterprises.

A series of campaigns will be organised by the Ministry of MSME during FY24-25 in various parts of the country, focusing on tier 2 and 3 cities.

The MSME minister also emphasised the need to deepen and broaden the effort through an inclusive and focused approach, especially in the rural areas and hinterland as per the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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 Accel, one of the world’s top venture capital firms, has identified ‘Bharat’ as a massive blue ocean opportunity for Indian startups, citing promising economic indicators and evolving consumer behaviour across Tier 2, Tier 3 cities and rural areas.

Accel defines Bharat as middle-income households that earn between INR 5 to 15 lakhs annually and spread across Tier 2, Tier 3, and rural India.

In an exclusive interview with IANS, Anand Daniel, partner at Accel, discussed the immense potential of building for Bharat. Historically, startups have struggled in these markets due to inadequate infrastructure, limited digital penetration, and insufficient understanding of consumer preferences, Daniel said.

The recent advancements in technology, logistics, and payment systems have laid a foundation for sustainable growth in these underserved regions, he added.

Despite the common belief that rural means poor, the top 20-30% of this untapped market spends more per month than about half the population in urban cities, Daniel told IANS. This highlights a substantial purchasing power in rural areas that is often overlooked.

In a recent blog, Accel wrote that contrary to conventional notions, which paint this demographic as primarily price-sensitive, this segment is highly aspirational and shows a growing preference for products and services that promise a better lifestyle and reflect upward mobility. This trend is exemplified by a surge in the demand for used iPhones in Tier 2 cities and beyond, the VC firm added.

“We believe this market is more ripe for disruption than ever before. Founders need to take a crack at the Bharat Opportunity,” Daniel said.

The ‘build for Bharat’ theme has gained momentum among investors such as Accel and entrepreneurs alike, reflecting a strategic shift towards developing business models that cater to this segment of India and its unique needs.

But why have startups not succeeded in building for Bharat till now? Until recently, startups aiming to serve rural India struggled due to inadequate infrastructure, unaddressed customer behaviour, and a lack of focus, according to Accel. Challenges included poor delivery networks, incomplete pincode coverage, and inefficient reverse logistics, which inflated costs for handling small orders. Sparse digital payment options and unreliable internet connectivity added to the problems.

However, recent advancements are reshaping the landscape. The introduction of the UPI payment system has revolutionised transactions, while initiatives like Jan Dhan accounts have significantly boosted financial inclusion. Logistics firms now offer broader pincode coverage and faster delivery times, marking a pivotal improvement. These developments will unlock opportunities for startups seeking to tap into Bharat, potentially transforming how services are delivered and accessed in rural areas.

Accel anticipates that in the next decade, several enduring e-commerce companies valued at over $1 billion will emerge for Bharat. Financial services are also poised to expand, providing accessible lending solutions to underserved segments.

“From personal loans to loans for cattle or house financing, a new set of lending companies can leverage technology and provide tailored products at the right price to cater to the underserved and aspirational Bharat,” Daniel said.

Healthcare is also a ripe opportunity for innovators. In addition to that, ed-tech platforms will proliferate, addressing skill gaps and employment needs with cost-effective education and certification programs. With the advancement of artificial intelligence, startups are innovating across domains.

“We are looking for AI’s first consumer company, which will enable Bharat’s mass audience across sectors,” he noted.

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 In India, 94 per cent of tech micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) acknowledge artificial intelligence’s (AI) ability to drive business growth while 87 per cent of them showed confidence in AI’s potential to improve overall productivity, a Nasscom-Meta report showed on Thursday.

Around 72 per cent of tech MSMEs emphasise the need for AI training programmes for their workforce, according to a white paper by Nasscom supported by Meta.

Meta (formerly Facebook) entered into a strategic partnership with Nasscom to spotlight the current state of the AI adoption journey of tech MSMEs in the country.

“Ecosystem collaboration, coupled with access to user-friendly tools and resources, is essential for tech-enabled MSMEs to harness AI’s full potential and for India to maximise its AI dividends,” said Sangeeta Gupta, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Nasscom.

Specifically, 48 per cent of respondents support AI’s potential in content creation and marketing, 46 per cent in customer engagement, followed by 68 per cent in developing new products and services.

“With its massive developer base and the third largest startup ecosystem in the world, India is going to be a driving force in the global AI revolution. Meta has been committed to creating an ecosystem for MSMEs to thrive, and our joint efforts with Nasscom focus on equipping MSMEs with the necessary tools and knowledge to unlock the full potential of AI,” said Sandhya Devanathan, Vice President (India) at Meta.

The white paper also identified significant challenges faced by tech MSMEs in navigating the benefits of leveraging AI for sustainable business expansion and growth.

The paper called out an awareness gap with 65 per cent of tech MSMEs struggling due to the limited awareness about available tools and resources, while 72 per cent emphasised the necessity for AI training programmes stressing the importance of skill development in facilitating adoption.

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Samsung on Thursday said consumers can pre-reserve its next Galaxy Z series smartphones and ecosystem products to become eligible for early access and special offers in India.

Customers can pre-reserve the next Galaxy Z series smartphones by paying a token amount of Rs 2,000, the company said in a statement.

“Those who pre-reserve the next Galaxy Z series smartphones will get benefits worth up to Rs 7,000 on purchase of these products,” said Samsung.

Additionally, customers can pre-reserve Samsung’s next Galaxy ecosystem products with a token amount of Rs 1,999 and avail benefits worth up to Rs 6,499 on purchase of these products.

The South Korean giant is set to launch the next generation of Galaxy Z series smartphones and ecosystem devices at its global event on July 10.

“The next frontier of Galaxy AI is coming. Prepare to discover the power of Galaxy AI, now infused into the latest Galaxy Z series and the entire Galaxy ecosystem,” said the company.

The market watchers expect Samsung to unveil its new Galaxy Z Fold series and Galaxy Z Flip 6 with built-in generative AI.

Samsung is also expected to showcase its first Galaxy Ring smart device and Galaxy Watch 7 series.

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Residential sales across top seven cities in India tamed down marginally in the second quarter this year, amid increasing property prices and a high base record of the previous quarter. Housing sales witnessed a quarterly drop of 8 per cent and stood at nearly 1,20,340 units in Q2 2024 across the top seven cities — against about 1,30,170 units sold in Q1 this year.

However, on a yearly basis, there has been a 5 per cent rise in residential sales, according to latest Anarock Research data.

The two western cities – Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Pune – accounted for over 52 per cent of the total sales in the top 7 cities with over 62,685 units sold altogether in these cities in Q2 2024.

NCR is the only city to see a quarterly rise (of 6 per cent) in housing sales in the quarter against Q1 2024.

New launches across the top seven cities continued to break previous records with a 6 per cent rise — from about 1,10,870 units in Q1 to 1,17,170 units in Q2.

MMR and Pune saw the maximum new supply, accounting for 54 per cent of the total new launches, according to the report.

Individually, the two cities saw 31 per cent and 1 per cent quarterly increases in their new supply, respectively.

Notably, Delhi-NCR witnessed a 134 per cent jump (on-quarter) in new supply in Q2 against Q1.

“The quarterly decline seen in housing sales is essentially because of the all-time high base considered in the previous quarter, when more than 1.30 lakh units were sold,” said Anuj Puri, Chairman, Anarock Group.

Most importantly, this drop is also due to the significant hike in property prices over the last one year, which in turn has prompted many investors to take a breather, he added.

Delhi-NCR witnessed the highest quarterly residential price jump of 10 per cent in Q2 while Hyderabad saw the highest yearly jump of 38 per cent in average residential prices.

“However, if prices are kept in check henceforth, housing sales may not be majorly impacted in the upcoming quarters,” said Puri.

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Indian frontline indices again touched an all-time high on Thursday as strong buying was seen in IT stocks. Sensex and Nifty made an all-time high of 79,240 and 24,036 respectively. This is the first time that nifty crossed the 24,000 mark and Sensex exceeded the 79,000 level.

At 12:55 p.m., Sensex was up 418 points or 0.53 per cent at 79,092, and Nifty was up 135 points or 0.53 per cent at 24,004.

Among the sectors, buying is seen in IT, oil and gas, and FMCG while, PSU bank, auto, pharma, and media are top laggards.

According to the experts, “The market will remain bullish in the near-term despite the valuation concerns, and the ongoing momentum has the potential to take the Sensex to 80000 levels.”

“A healthy trend in the market is that now the up move is being led by fundamentally strong largecaps in sectors like banking and telecom,” they added.

In Sensex pack, Ultratech (NS:ULTC) cement, Wipro (NS:WIPR), JSW steel, Infosys (NS:INFY), Tech Mahindra (NS:TEML), NTPC (NS:NTPC), TCS (NS:TCS), and Kotak Mahindra (NS:KTKM) are top gainers. However, L&T, Maruti Suzuki (NS:MRTI), Sun Pharma (NS:SUN), IndusInd Bank (NS:INBK), and Bajaj Finance (NS:BJFN) are top losers.

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Despite stiff competition from various states, including Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha, Maharashtra has retained its top position in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows in the country, according to the State Economic Survey 2023-24. The Economic Survey was presented by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in the Assembly on Thursday.

Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had recently said that as per the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade report during 2023-24, the FDI equity inflow in Maharashtra was Rs 1,25,101 crore as compared to Rs 1,18,422 crore in 2022-23.

Since the adoption of the liberalisation policy in August 1991 up to December 2023 all 22,937 industrial projects with an investment of Rs 18,38,445 crore were approved in the state.

The total number of MSMEs registered on the Udyam registration portal up to January 9, 2024, was 33.07 lakh (32.05 lakh micro, 0.91 lakh small and 0.11 lakh medium) with 123.39 lakh total employment.

During 2022-23, exports from Maharashtra contributed 16 per cent to the total exports from India.

As of March 2024, the state has the highest share (19 per cent) in startups recognised by the Union government at the national level.

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Maharashtra economy is set to grow at 7.6 per cent during 2023-24 on the lines of the national economy which is also likely to grow at 7.6 per cent as per the Economic Survey 2023-24 presented by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in the Assembly on Thursday. Maharashtra continues to rank sixth after Telangana, Karnataka, Haryana, Tamil Nadu (NS:TNNP) and Gujarat when it comes to state’s Per Capita Income which is estimated at Rs 2,77,603 during 2023-24 as against Rs 2,52,389 during 2022-23.

As per the advance estimates, the real Gross State Value Added (GSVA) of agriculture and allied activities is expected to grow at 1.9 per cent. The real GSVA of the crops sector is expected to grow by (-)1.5 per cent, Livestock by 6.1 per cent, the Forestry & Logging sector by 9.2 per cent and the Fishing & Aquaculture sector by 2.9 per cent.

The Industry sector is expected to grow at 7.6 per cent and the Services sector is likely to grow at 8.8 per cent. The real GSVA of the manufacturing sector is estimated to grow by 7.5 per cent while the real GSVA of the construction sector is expected to grow by 6.2 per cent. As a result, the real GSVA of the industry sector is likely to grow by 7.6 per cent.

As per the advance estimates of 2023-24, nominal Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) is expected to grow at 10.9 per cent over 2022-23 and is estimated to be Rs 40.44 lakh crore. As per the second advance estimates for 2023-24, the nominal GDP is expected to be Rs 293.90 lakh crore and is likely to increase by 9.1 per cent over 2022-23.

As per the advance estimates of 2023-24, real Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) is expected to grow at 7.6 per cent over 2022-23 and is estimated to be Rs 24.11 lakh crore. As per the second advance estimates for 2023-24, the nominal GDP is expected to be Rs 172.90 lakh crore and is likely to increase by 7.6 per cent over 2022-23.

The average share of the state’s nominal GSDP in All-India nominal GDP (the base year 2011-12) from 2011-12 to 2022-23 is the highest (13.9 per cent), followed by that of Tamil Nadu (8.7 per cent).

During the Kharif season of 2023-24, sowing was completed in 155.64 lakh ha area. The production of cereals, pulses, oilseeds and sugarcane is expected to decrease by 23 per cent, 10 per cent, 2 per cent and 17 per cent respectively while production of cotton is expected to increase by three per cent over the previous year.

During the rabi season of 2023-24, sowing was completed on 58.60 lakh ha. The production of cereals & pulses is expected to decrease by five per cent & four per cent respectively while production of oilseeds is expected to increase by 13 per cent over the previous year.

During 2022-23, the area under horticulture crops is expected to be 22.40 lakh ha and production is expected to be 327.80 lakh MT. The state ranks second in India in organic farm production (27 per cent share) after Madhya Pradesh.

Irrigation potential created up to June 2022 by major, medium and minor irrigation (State sector) projects was 55.60 lakh ha. During 2022-23, the actual irrigated area was 42.33 lakh ha (76.1 per cent).

During 2023-24, crop loans of Rs 60,195 crore and agricultural term loans of Rs 93,926 crore were disbursed through Scheduled Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks and District Central Co-operative Banks

Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme, since inception up to March 2024, an amount of Rs 29,630.24 crore has been deposited in bank accounts of 115.42 lakh small and marginal farmer-beneficiaries in the state.

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 Maharashtra’s public debt is estimated at Rs 7,11,278 crore in 2023-24 against Rs 6,29,235 crore in 2022-23, a rise of 13 per cent.

As per the Economic Survey 2023-24 presented in the Maharashtra Assembly on Thursday by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, though the public debt has increased to 17.6 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) against 16.5 per cent, it is well within the prescribed limits of 25 per cent of GSDP as per the Medium Term Fiscal Policy. The public debt refers to the accumulated outstanding loans and other liabilities of the state.

Further, the state’s outgo towards interest payment increased to Rs 48,578 crore against Rs 41,689 crore during the same period, a rise of 16.52 per cent.

The state’s revenue receipts are estimated at Rs 4,86,116 crore against Rs 4,05,678 crore. Of the 4,86,116 crore, the state’s tax revenue is estimated at Rs 3,96,052 crore comprising Rs 3,26,398 crore from its taxes and Rs 69,654 crore due to share in central states.

The non-tax revenue, including central grants, is estimated at Rs 90,064 crore. Actual revenue receipts (RE) during 2023-24 up to February were Rs 3,73,924 crore (76.9 per cent of RE)

The state’s revenue expenditure is estimated at Rs 5,05,647 crore against Rs 4,07,614 crore. Actual revenue expenditure during 2023-24 up to February was Rs 3,35,761 crore (66.4 per cent of RE). The revenue deficit is likely to be Rs 19,532 crore against Rs 1,936 crore.

As per 2023-24 (RE), the share of capital receipts in total receipts is 25.9 per cent and the share of capital expenditure in total expenditure is 23.0 per cent.

The percentage of fiscal deficit to GSDP is 2.8 per cent, revenue deficit to GSDP is 0.5 per cent.

The total anticipated expenditure for annual schemes 2023-24 is Rs 2,31,651 crore, of which Rs 20,188 crore is on the district annual schemes.

 AGENCIES

The Indian micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector employs about 1.2 crore people, and by 2025, the industry is expected to generate over two lakhs new jobs, a report showed on Thursday.The new job opportunities will span across the services sectors and manufacturing sectors, both across urban and rural India, according to the report by LB Services, a global technology and digital talent solutions provider.

Notably, many emerging industries under the MSME umbrella like e-commerce, logistics, and supply-chain are also expected to witness a surge in new employment.

“Home to 633.9 lakh enterprises, India has the strongest growing cohort of micro, small and medium enterprises, generating mass-scale employment across India, especially in tier 2 and 3 regions,” said Sachin Alug, CEO, NLB Services.

Today, small businesses which comprise 96 per cent of industrial units are the second largest employment generator in the country.

Overall the MSME ecosystem contributes to over 33 per cent of the GDP, driving 62 per cent of the employment on the domestic front.

“However, the average contribution of MSMEs in employment generation across other emerging economies stands at 77 per cent, indicating untapped potential that can be explored in India,” Alug added.

Driven by the surge in digitisation and the post-pandemic shift in the workforce, MSMEs will witness an increased demand for roles in construction, manufacturing, transportation, and supply-chain, etc.

The majority of the new roles will emerge across states like Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu (NS:TNNP), and Telangana, said the report.

Women-led enterprises stand at 20.44 per cent of micro-businesses, 5.26 per cent of small businesses, and 2.77 per cent of medium businesses.

Compared to male-owned MSMEs, women-led MSMEs have registered better growth in income, said the report.

“Over the next five years, we expect another 20-25 per cent surge in women-led MSMEs, which will further complement job creation,” it added.

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