Relevance of Intellectual Property Rights for Indian SMEs

NEW DELHI: Time and again, it has been proved that a major part of the Indian economy is pushed by growth of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Many of these small units in India are functioning on the ideas of products manufactured, services offered and also the designs developed. These SMEs are proving their mettle at the global platform basis these. This sector has emerged as a major source for employment generator in the past few years. As self-reliance is becoming a dominant factor among the developing economies, SMEs are facing hurdles such as decreasing opportunities and stiff competition to maintain their foothold. Among the key issues, the one causing worry is Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and SMEs' trade secrets. Analysts believe that intellectual property (IP) is an efficient and important tool which can enhance the growth for Indian SMEs significantly.

What do we understand by IPR

IPR are a particular set of exclusive rights, which helps protect the innovative activity behind any new products, designs and commercial activity. These rights have potential to bring progress by offering support to creativity. IPR owners are given certain benefits when commercially exploited. IPR are governed by provisions of related legislations and can be further classified as trademark, patent, copyright, industrial design and geographical indications. Moreover, IPR can be divided in two broad categories - industrial property and copyrights. The industrial property comprises of inventions, industrial designs, trademarks, and geographical indications, while copyrights consist of rights related to the literary, artistic, musical works etc.



IPR norms in India

On January 1, 1995 the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) became effective in the country. Moreover, the TRIPS took off in India with provisions for protection and enforcement of IPR with minimum standards. It was also enacted in India with the aim to promote IPR and remove all possible hurdles from global trade.



Importance of IPR for Indian SMEs

IPR can help the Indian entrepreneurs prepare better for competition from their global peers. It assists them to develop their business and competitive management strategy. With the adoption of unique trademarks and brand names, every trader enjoys the right to develop a robust recall value and also create market for his product. Earlier, just tangible assets were considered as significant in regard to value addition to a business. But, now-a-days, intangible assets, such as Intellectual Capital (IC), innovation and technologies are also considered important for value addition to any business. It is believed that by purchasing intangible assets like patents in key technologies, businesses witness strong growth. Securing IPR helps promote the idea of innovation among the small units and also offers opportunity to bag profit.



Which IPs' SMEs can purchase to enhance growth and value

● Buying intellectual property, SMEs can makes sure that IP becomes a valuable asset for their business.
● Innovative processes’ patent is useful and can be used for the production of new products.
● In regard to artistic work and computer softwares, copyrights are best suited.
● Trademarks help form a distinctive brand name along with recall value.
● With an aim to save the creative packaging and textile designs, industrial designs for protection can be used.
● For commercial use, trade secrets are important.



How IPR can effect businesses

● IPR can generate greater revenue in businesses via assignment, licensing, sale. It has potential to start private investments, specialized bank loans, venture capitalists, which will help the SMEs in long run.
● Intangible assets prove beneficial for SMEs at the time of acquisition and/or at a merger opportunity. It helps in Joint Ventures (JV) also.
● Although SMEs make up close to 90% of the overall industrial enterprises, the Indian SMEs face problems such as garnering IP and using it fruitfully. These issues come up often in the absence of awareness, financial constraints, poor technical knowledge and absence of competitive strategy.



Centre adopting steps to promote IPR usage by SMEs

It is believed that Indian MSMEs are not properly aware about various advantages of IPR and this is also one of the reasons, why they are not intelligently used by these units. National Manufacturing Competitive Council (NMCC) unveiled a national campaign for strengthening investment in IP. It helps create awareness and also encourage participation in research & technology, strengthening brand strategy using IPR tools, promotion of innovation via shared patenting costs. NMCC has carried out pilot studies on SME clusters as well. NMCC is a forum meant to energise and sustain growth of Indian manufacturing sector, which proposed five-year National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme (NMCP) for the Indian SMEs.





Conclusion

Indian SMEs often fail to take necessary action to make their business profitable due to different constraints. In this regard, central government has been adopting various measures to raise their (SMEs) competitiveness. The small units can ensure sufficient legal protection and security for their intellectual property with proper investment in developing trademarks, copyrights for protection of brands, artistic work and softwares. As generating 'awareness about the company, business, product or service' is slowly becoming the norm of the day, the SMEs should aim to adopt IPR in their businesses.

Effective marketing platforms for SMEs

Starting a new venture can be an eagerness of an entrepreneur but running it successfully requires a lot of efforts, understanding and considerable risk. The prosperity and growth of a business is not only dependent on idea, capital infusion, workforce but the adoption of contemporary business tools that holds the similar value in the business.
Internet is indeed one of the most unique and greatest gift of technology to mankind. Internet seems appealing to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) who wish to internationalize their activities and products.

How Internet acts as business catalyst
It is a widespread fact that Internet is a powerful tool but what makes it compelling is the system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide. This advanced technology allows people living in completely different corners of the world to communicate easily with each other with utmost interactive tools such as emails, chats, SMS, voice SMS.
The global business fraternity is also experiencing the positive impact of Internet. In reality, it has completely changed the definition of business development as today visibility in the market is at par with quality and quantity in the growth of any business. Global recognisation of a product and business is highly important. Now-a-days, campaigning and product promotion acts as gauge for business growth. The successful product promotion and campaigning generates the need of improving communication and interaction with people. And what would be the best option for widening the communication base besides 'Internet'.


About Online Marketing
Online marketing or web marketing comprises everything to whet the appetite of an organisation as it expands reach in a considerable manner. A single click on the mouse will make a product public along with all required details at any time and from any place. This is a known fact that a constant and healthy communication between all entities of the business, such as manufacturer, supplier, buyer, seller, wholesalers and dealers is vital for the growth of a business. A supply chain management can easily created with the help of Internet, which maintains a closer linkage among all business entities.


Building presence on Internet
Although, building a website is an initial step towards Internet marketing, but the journey does not ends here, one needs much more than a website. In order to attract visitors to the business website, there are some ways to market a website, such as - Building presence on Internet


- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – a process of improving the visibility of a website by helping it rank higher in popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo!.


- Search Engine Marketing (SEM) - a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) through optimization and also through advertising.


- SEO Consultation – provides guidance to the company on how people interested in a particular product and services use search engines to find what they are looking for, and how companies can rank well for these searches.


- Social Media Marketing (Facebook, twitter, etc.,) - refers to the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites like facebook, twitter, linkedin, you tube, and to name a few.


- Pay per click (PPC) advertising - a popular way to attract visitors on website. PPC involves creating a link to a site appear next to search results for keywords that are related to your business.


- Listing on online B2B marketplace - allows the company to be visible in a concentrated B2B marketplace where buyers visit often and connect with suppliers for their business. Suppliers too, in turn, can find vendors for their requirements


Programmes offered by players for SMEs:
There are many prominent and leading organisation who understand the needs of small businesses and helping them to survive and come out boldly in this cut-throat competition, such as -


(A) Office 365 Suite For Small Businesses
Recently, telecom major Bharti Airtel announced its partnership with Microsoft India to offer cloud computing services to small and medium business enterprises (SMBs). Under the alliance, Bharti Airtel will deliver Microsoft's cloud-based Office365 solution to SMBs through its cloud platform.
Today, cloud computing has emerged as a new area in IT and SMEs that account for one-third contribution of IT investment, according to EMCZinnov study 2012, find it as the most appealing IT feature. As per the study, India's cloud computing market is pegged at around $400 million and is likely to reach $4.5 billion by 2015 driven by SMEs that constitute the backbone of Indian economy.


(B) Jade Magnet partners Kuliza and Amazon for SMEs push
Bangalore-based professional website advertising agency Jade Magnet had announced its partnership with Kuliza and Amazon in April this year to provide customized websites at Rs 15,000 a year to SMEs as the Lean SME Online program .


Jade Magnet is a crowdsourcing platform that offers design and marketing support solutions while Kuliza creates and manages web hosting infrastructure using the Amazon Web Services cloud platform. The program aims to enable small and medium-sized businesses to go online with professional websites that can create brand identity with creativity and quality.


(C) Brand positioning opportunity for SMEs by Vodafone
Steeping in the trend, telecom major Vodafone India has also announced a enviable opportunity to small and medium enterprises (SME's) for brand positioning in the season 2 of Vodafone Drive into the Big League, the motor racing event.


Under the programme, the SMEs will be opportunitised to get their logo placed on the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes cars that will race at the second Indian Grand Prix to be held in Delhi from October 26-28, this year. SMEs with a turnover between Rs 10 crore and Rs 250 crore and an employee base of less than a thousand are eligible to participate in the Vodafone Drive into the Big League contest.


(D) Indian SMEs getting global push
US-based Parallels, a hosting and cloud services enablement firm, has announced its plans to team up with various service providers and telecom companies in India to provide hosting and cloud services to SMEs. In its attempts to tap Indian SME market, the company has already tied up with 30 service providers since it started its operations in India two years back.


(E) IndiaMART.com's B2B marketplace
Back home in India, a B2B marketplace IndiaMART has also enabled over 6 lakh SMEs with free online catalogs already. It has over 12 lakh SMEs listed on its platform. The 16 year-old B2B portal not only pushes their visibility globally for business but also brings them free information on tenders, trade shows etc, and establishes their credibility through third party verified trust profile on their listings and websites.


(F) Google's 'India Get Your Business Online' initiative
Last year in November, the search engine giant Google India announced the launch of a first-of-its kind program 'India Get Your Business Online', in order to help 5,00,000 small-medium businesses in India to get online in next three years. The programme allows small business owners in India to log on to www dot indiagetonline dot in and use the tool to get a free, easy-to-build website and web hosting for one year powered by HostGator.
This programme is also supported by Federation of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (FISME). Speaking to SME News, Anil Bhardwaj, Secretary General of FISME, said, “India get online programme has been an extremely successful initiative of Google which has implemented in partnership with ICICI, FISME and HostGator. True to Google philosophy, its uniqueness lied in simplifying and demystifying the experience of setting-up a business website for small entrepreneurs."

TV advertising emerging as effective tool for SMEs

Since liberalisation, when the Indian economy underwent major changes, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) were the ones that pushed India’s technical and service expertise in various industries. By being operational in every tier of workmanship, SMEs have successfully found space for themselves in the economy. But now the question that arises is that what happens when such SMEs displays keenness to grow? Is it possible for them to create an appeal for acceptance across India?


At such a point, SMEs should consider innovative, affordable advertising methods that will not only push their growth but also enhance their overall presence and visibility. They enjoy the opportunity to strike gold in non-metro markets due to the fact that majority of the population have poor brand loyalty today.


In the past several years, television has emerged as a medium which is mostly used by companies to promote their values, products, services and offers.
Advertising is considered as a favorable representation of product or a service, aimed at creating awareness and familiarising the brand among the desired set of audiences consisting of existing and potential customers, general public, etc.


But, TV advertising is considered as an expensive option, affordable for companies with significant budget allotted for promotion. It is one of the primary reasons why the SMEs had prefered to keep out of this domain until now. Big companies with multi-million dollar budgets can choose expensive mediums to strengthen presence, but SMEs with limited budgets need to stay cautious about how, where and when they spend their marketing funds.


What is TV Advertising
TV Advertising is defined as a paid form of non–professional but positive display of goods/ services of any company/brand. It does not comprise distribution of free samples or bonuses as these are part of sales promotion.
Many people often feel that the primary aim of advertising is to sell products/services. But the actual aim of advertising is to develop awareness about any particular product or service available under a brand.
While talking about advertising, it is important to know about its various mediums consisting both electronic and non-electronic means of communication.
It is believed that advertising by electronic means of communication is more popular as compared to other forms such as print, TV, radio, Internet and outdoor. It has potential to cover a complete range of audiences of different age groups, gender and other demographics. Since TV viewers are available in every home, if any product/service is advertised, the brand’s popularity increases manifolds due to its wide reach as compared to the traditional means.
The non–electronic advertising is usually carried out in newspaper, pamphlets, brochures, magazines, journals and books. Banners and posters are also part of non-electronic advertising. Advertising in print media is comparatively cheaper as against TV.
In the past few years, Internet has also emerged as a viable option for enterprises to create awareness along with mobile advertising. There are several SMEs reaping its benefits today.


What makes TV advertising an option for SMEs now
To attain success in any business, creating brand awareness is an important process and it can be carried out effectively with advertising. It helps increase the selling power of products and services.
As the penetration of TV is quite high in India, advertising on TV as a marketing tool could be used by any type of business efficiently to its advantage.
With the emergence of cable and regional television, it is possible for any small business to benefit from TV advertising just like the large corporations. The industry is booming, new cable stations are coming up every year along with the growing requirement of advertising to attract consumers. As TV advertising is becoming competitive, many stations are providing affordable packages to the small businesses.
SMEs need to understand that TV advertising is powerful and it can help any business attain instant credibility. It has potential to position the small businesses in the same league of MNCs, which enhances the visibility factor.
In India, there are many regional SME brands engaged in different sectors like pharma, FMCG, steel, cement, beverages, household appliances and dairy products. It is often found that the regional SMEs enjoy better understanding of the domestic needs as compared to the big brands. Hence, the advertising need for SMEs is bigger as they have better capability to cater in regard to cost, quality and specific needs of their marketplace. TV advertising makes it possible for the small businesses to convert more potential buyers into paying customers.


TV advertising usage by SMEs in India
The usage of TV advertising platform by SMEs is still at a nascent stage as ‘high marketing costs’ often hinders their brand building process. Regional TV advertising comes handy here to position the company in local regions.
Reports suggest that on an average, hours watched per viewer per week in case of TV stands at 36, while in case of online the figure is close to 10. It clearly shows that TV’s popularity continues to grow despite the presence of online video content.
TV holds the title of the largest mass medium used for advertising for over 60 years and that designation is still retained by it while Internet  has also picked up on popularity. Television is a significant part of a media plan due to its pervasiveness, effect and targeting abilities.


TV advertising platforms in India
As Indian SMEs are slowly adopting the concept of TV advertising, there are firms offering solutions to help the small enterprises.
One such company is Bangalore-based advertising player Amagi Media Labs that realised the needs of SMEs and developed a unique platform for these units to advertise their brands. Currently, Amagi has over 700-SME customers on board and its 'Smart TV Advertising platform' helps small businesses to advertise by spending a not-so high amount.
In an interview to SME News about the growing need of TV advertisements among the SMEs, KA Srinivasan, co-founder, Amagi Media Labs, said, “We are seeing an increased shift towards TV for SMEs - television has always been perceived as expensive medium by most SMEs - but with success stories of the likes of Fevicol, Lion dates, Ghari Detergent, we are seeing a fundamental mindset change. This has been further aided by increasing availability of targeted content (more niche channels coming up targeting specific demographics, language or regions) as well as new platform options like Amagi which provide zero-spillage TV by targeting on national TV channels.”
Reports suggest that the regional SMEs developed brand campaigns on multiple National TV channels with the help of Amagi platform at the low budget of just Rs 2 lakh per month. Amagi said that over 500 advertisers across the country benefited by using the platform and it is available across 14 states.
MAS Financial Services Ltd, a retail financing organisation and also a client of Amagi, said that this platform has helped in effective branding of the company. Saumil Pandya, vice president, MAS Financial Services Ltd, said, “Amagi’s Smart TV Advertising platform is a boon for regional brands like us. I can now get the best of both worlds - national TV and local rates. Coupled with Amagi’s creative services, this platform has helped me get both branding and response at a reasonable budget.”


Conclusion
As business challenges are never-ending and act as persistent interruptions, SMEs must understand the basic advertising norms that will prove beneficial in making sound choices.

India is seeing considerable improvement in purchasing power in small cities. It is time for the SMEs to reap benefits from the growing trend of TV advertising to stay afloat. SMEs should aim to build regional presence and also push growth. It is time for them to think out of the box that will enable them to spread their word far and wide.

Incubation: A cutting-edge tool for self employment

Increasing number of entrepreneurs in a country outshines the nation in the global arena and growing importance and visible impact of entrepreneurship in employment-generation in developing economies gives birth to an idea of business incubation. An entrepreneur not only charts on his/her own course but also pursues growth while generating wealth, employment and social good.
Entrepreneurs hold potential to transform a city, region and a country as entrepreneurship increases opportunities for employment, introduces and disseminates new methods and technology and also drives overall economy.


What is Business Incubation?
Incubation is a novel concept primarily gestated to help budding entrepreneurs to launch and develop their business with an intellectual assistance of experienced players. Business incubation is a contributive environment created to foster the sustainable growth potential and development of an enterprise. An incubation center offers various forms of assistance to entrepreneurs, including technical knowledge, market studies, access to loans and training programmes. Some also provide office space, meeting rooms and printing, photocopying, fax and Internet infrastructure.
In brief, a business incubation centre is a supportive environment being provided to the budding entrepreneurs aimed to foster their entrepreneurial ideas before they step into venture capital. In this age of globalisation, incubation centres are highly required as they fulfill an entrepreneur's dream of building his/her own company. These centres provides a helping hand to entrepreneurs via assisting in early capital, infrastructure and expert counselling which turn ideas into tangible business models. Besides supporting an entrepreneur, an incubation centre also drives nation's economy by generating new job opportunities.


Objective of Incubation Centre:
An incubation centre is not only aimed to create self-employment but also to convert a person, having a innovative business idea but less resources, into an entrepreneur by way of providing all support services. These incubation centres are playing a vital role in emerging a country as an economic powerhouse as they create high value jobs through fostering newbie and high potential firms.


Globally, the incubation centres have been classified into Tecnology Incubators and Business Incubators. The array of business support resources and services, developed and engineered by incubator management extend support to the successful development of entrepreneurial companies.


Advantages of Incubation:
Incubators are a boon for entrepreneurs. These centres come in all forms, like innovation centres, technopoles and science parks. Although this practice is widely accepted in industrialised countries, but now-a-days such activities are gaining momentum in developing countries as well. Some major advantages are :


Promoting newbie ventures of young entrepreneurs
During initial gestation period, offering a broad range of entrepreneurship development initiatives such as training, nursery incubator space
Central common machining facilities
Systems and networking support
Catalogue library
Extending financial aid
The facilities such as workshops, computer networks with Internet facilities etc. have proven to be a blessing for upcoming enterprises. Some entrepreneurial incubation centers also provide the availability of online consultancy in the form of management professionals' team. After analysing various business propositions, this team helps to develop best-suited business plans thereby providing greater impetus to newbie entrepreneurs.


Why India needs to promote Incubation programmes?
Gone are the days when a decent well paying and 9-5 desk job was all that one aspired for. Economic growth, globalisation are some of the factors spurting the need of having more and more entrepreneurs in the country. Incubations promote entrepreneurship spirit which not only creates successful businesses but also increases employment rate of a country.
Knowledge acts as a catalyst for change and the initial step to promote incubation programmes is to disseminate information with regard to business brooding. Further, the private sector involvement in this regard is also important. It has been found that financial lenders are often disinclined to provide loans and support research and technology innovation and modernisation in such programmes. But the encouragement to applied research can lure banks. Moreover, the business environment should be encouraged in order to stimulate young budding graduates to start up their own business.


Incubation centers in India
National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), a miniratna company facilitating the growth of small enterprises since 1955, has created a Rapid Incubation Programme. The programme offers integrated support through rapid incubation of unemployed people in its technical and incubation centres. NSIC's Rapid Incubation Programme prepares unemployed persons for entrepreneurship and capacity building. It provides all needful facilities for potential entrepreneurs to learn product manufacturing and all its processes.
Besides NSIC's Rapid Incubation Programme, there are various incubation centres in India, such as -
Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), IIM-Ahmedabad
SIDBI Innovation & Incubation Centre (SIIC), IIT-Kharagpur
Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, IIT- Bombay
National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN), Wadhwani Foundation
Technology Business Incubator (TBI), BITS Pilani
National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai


Conclusion

Although, an incubator does not guarantee success, but it can act as a nursery which will supervise and mentor the early mistakes of a new startup so that an entrepreneur could not end up causing financial or motivational loss in business.

Indian SMEs vulnerable to cyber attacks

The first decade of 21st century has witnessed significant and unprecedented rise in the Information & Communications Technology (ICT) sector, which has lead to the emergence of the concept of virtual marketplace.


As these days businesses are becoming more and more dependent on technology to augment growth, the speedy adoption of ICT is also going up fast. To fully realise the benefits of the digital revolution, it is a must for the users to understand the complete importance of securing sensitive information.


Currently, economies across the globe are facing crisis due to economic meltdown and it has impacted growth of businesses of all sizes. In today's world, cyber attacks are not just focussed in its approach but they are also aimed at compromising business systems and networks. Most of them aim to steal high value information and cause disruption. It is believed that with the consistent change in the digital world, the onus lies on the businesses to stay updated about the latest technology so that they don’t fall prey to these risk.


Understanding the meaning of cyber attack
Cyber crime is a term that describes criminal activity in which computers or computer networks are used as a tool, a target. Computer crime consists of unauthorised access to computer systems data changes, data destruction, theft of intellectual properly.


It is also referred to as an attempt to get access to 'key' informations like usernames, passwords, other important details in the guise of a trustworthy entity via electronic communication. Social websites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT administrators are used often to attract the users.


Cyber security and India Inc
During the past four years, India Inc has seen four fold jump in cyber attacks and hence, it is also one of the reason why Indian companies are increasingly understanding the 'true' importance of cyber security for their businesses, irrespective of the sectors they belong to. A report by the Security and Defence Agenda (SDA) and McAfee states that India is among the top five nations in the globe which are most affected by cyber crime.


Since many business organisations depend heavily on the latest Internet technologies to enhance their competitiveness within both the domestic and international markets, the issue of cyber security has started to worry many.
Analysts feel that since Internet has altogether given a new definition to communication, therefore it won’t be incorrect to say that the second name of communication is now Internet. Although, Internet brings many benefits with speed, but questions have often been raised about its misuse and spams.
Meanwhile, according to Trend Micro quarterly security roundup report, India has emerged as the top spam-sending nation in the March quarter of 2012. It contributed to nearly 20% of the world’s overall spam volume followed by Indonesia at 13%, South Korea at 12% and Russia at 10%.


SMEs too faced with cyber attacks
SMEs, mainly, are vulnerable to cyber attacks since they generally have smaller customer base along with limited product lines as compared to the MNCs.


Although, SMEs are considered as an important economic force, they often have poor IT security infrastructure since they witness problems such as absence of resources, IT infrastructure and skilled manpower. The ever-increasing threat of cyber attack has brought the weakness of SMEs to light and made them vulnerable to these threats.


Today, the cyber attacks are aimed at businesses primarily with emphasis to steal high value information and also causing harm.


Meanwhile, a Symantec survey said that the advanced targeted cyber attacks are expanding their foothold beyond the more usual domain of large organisations, with 50% targeting SMEs during last year.
The survey – India findings of its Internet Security Threat Report –from Symantec threw light on various issues. Few of the important findings in the report comprise of:


- Symantec blocked an overall of more than 5.5-billion malware attacks during 2011, witnessing rise of 81% jump as compared to 2010.


- The web-based attacks saw considerable appreciation by 36% with more than 4,500 new attacks every day.


- 50% of the aimed attacks were for firms with lower than 2,500 employees and just 42% of targeted attacks were for the CEOs or senior managers.
This survey proves that it is very crucial that India Inc, especially SMEs, to have ample knowledge about the potential cyber threats.


Symantec also said that the threat of cyber attacks are on the rise in Indian cities like Bhubaneswar, Surat, Cochin, Jaipur, Vishakhapatnam and Indore.


Security breaches costly affair
Analysts believe that the average cost of the worst IT information security breaches in small companies is not a negligible amount. It is shocking to find out that majority of SMEs don’t have contingency plans to counter cyber attacks or even required security level to take measures against it.


Reports suggest that during the 2010-2011 period, India Inc clocked loss of nearly Rs1,000 crore due to data theft.


Moreover, the rising concern for cyber safety needs to act as a warning signal for the small businesses. While cyber attacks on SMEs may not impact national security, but they can have devastating effect on those whose livelihood depends on the digital operations of SMEs.


Security tips on how to protect SMEs against both online and offline risks
- SMEs should ensure that they follow 'need-to-know' policy for its employees. For instance, if data is stored on a central server, limit the count of people who have access to important files. It will prove beneficial at the time of both deliberate and accidental data loss.


- As SMEs often lack technical expertise, seeking professional security advice is an excellent option.


- Create specific norms about email policy as it often comes with considerable amount of risks. Employees need to be informed about the importance of online security issues on regular basis.


- Creation of back up files is a must. It won’t impact regular and daily business activities even at the time of security breach incident.


Meanwhile, a recent study from Microsoft said that Indian SMEs trust cloud security more, since most of them feel it offered significantly higher levels of security. Close to 64% of Indian companies have seen improved security levels after migrating to cloud and 52% claimed that they spend less time worrying about the threat of cyber attacks.


Centre keen to eradicate cyber attacks from India
Recently, Union Home Ministry displayed keenness to work with the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) in the area of cyber crime, as per Home Minister P Chidambaram. According to Centre, every year cyber crime in India is rising at 50% rate. In the past five years, nearly 9,000 Indian websites have been hacked.


NASSCOM and Data Security Council of India (DSCI) want cyber forensic labs to come up across India.


Conclusion
It is high time for the SMEs to develop an Internet use policy to protect their data. It could include policy that permits the employees to know correctly about their responsibilities when they are surfing the web during working hours. Moreover, small changes through awareness and best practices can lead to safe and secured business for SMEs.

The bottom line is that the threats from cyber attacks should not be avoided and cutting costs by not installing data protection measures is not an option. So, staying prepared with such technology will end the stress of losing personal information.

SME sector hardest hit with thriving counterfeiting menace

 Counterfeiting is one of the fastest growing economic evildoing and is emerging as a network of organised crime impacting the profits of companies, governments and individuals. The shortcomings of the growing threat were recently discussed at a day-long seminar on 'Developing a Pro-active Strategy to curb counterfeiting' on the World Anti-Counterfeiting Day on June 13 organised by leading industry lobby, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) forum Committee on Anti-Smuggling and Counterfeiting Activities Destroying Economy (CASCADE).


FICCI-formed panel called FICCI-CASCADE expands into a committee on anti-smuggling and counterfeiting activities destroying the economy. The committee is closely working with the government to curb this menace.
According to FICCI-CASCADE, the share of fake/counterfeit medicines was pegged at 15-20 per cent of the total Indian market, soft drinks at 10 per cent and fake cosmetics, toiletry and packaged foods share a ballpark figure of 10-30 per cent.


The term counterfeit not only signifies the forgeries of currency or documents, but it also describes the imitation of works at toys, art, clothing, software, electronics, pharmaceuticals, watches and many more. Counterfeit, an illegal imitation of goods, results in patent infringement or trademark infringement.
As per the reports made public earlier this year, the counterfeit goods in Asia are mostly produced in China and the nation is considered as the counterfeit capital of the world. Some Chinese companies are from head to toe into this business and are progressively faking many popular products owned by big Indian brands such as Dabur and ITC. The hazard is thinning out in an extent that is triggering losses worth as much as $5 billion annually.
However, the accelerative problem of Chinese counterfeiting is not only handicapping the growth of India but it is laming the economic development of China in the same amount.

Notably, in the recent past the Chinese government is attempting hard to eradicate the outspread thriving multi-billion dollar global industry of counterfeit from the country. The development comes close on the heels of Chinese government facing flak from scores of countries and also understanding the severity of the emerging danger.
In the same development, the neighbouring country has formed a 'leadership group' consisting the non-cabinet ministers to consider and deal with the counterfeiting problem, which is now estimated to account for 8 per cent of China's gross domestic product. In addition, the country has also pledged to expand its suppressed operations on counterfeit goods and establish a long-term mechanism to step up the fight.


The emerging players of Chinese industry have also felt the pinch of the flourishing counterfeits in their country. The counterfeiters are continuously forging their goods and marketing them across the world, which in turn leads to revenue loss and degradation of Chinese manufacturers in the global markets.


To fight and suppress the growing menace, the Chinese manufacturers sought for the needful and stringent law enactment against counterfeiting, so as to keep the threat at bay and help the Chinese industry to sustain the creditworthiness in overseas markets.


The boom of Chinese counterfeit products is ceaselessly hitting the Indian industry, primarily the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector and cottage industries. The peril is speedily killing the revenues of small traders, particularly from clothing, leather and jewellery sectors.
The sufferers demand both compensatory and punitive punishment for counterfeiting. The compensation will fill up the caused damages and punition will discourage the wrong-doers.


The enforcement of tough law against increasing penetration of counterfeiters and infringers is the demand of the hour. In the recently culminated seminar on the World Anti-Counterfeiting Day, Pankaj Agrawala, special secretary, department of consumer affairs, called for joint efforts to root out this nuisance and opined that the consumer consciousness is primarily the key to curb the growing menace of counterfeit goods.


There is a need to take progressive judicial declarations against counterfeiting and infringement. The cooperative, joint commitments from across the world will help to wipe out the problem.

Export consortia: How SMEs can access global markets effectively

The small and medium enterprises (SMEs) today are considered as a vital segment of the Indian economy as they provide a significant contribution to the country's GDP. Today, the SME sector accounts for around 35 per cent of the gross value of output in the manufacturing sector and over 40 per cent of the total exports from the country.


SME players enjoy dominancy in some of India's major export sectors namely textiles and garments, sports goods, leather products, gems and jewelry, handicrafts to name a few. But still they are hesitant to step into global trade. In today's globalization and liberalization era, their penetration is confined with several factors and it is a herculean task for them to compete in a global environment. Some major restrictions faced by the SMEs include resource crunch, shortage of trained manpower, risks and complexities involved in exporting. They choose to compete across local areas, at the domestic level.


In order to assume centre-stage in India's trade policy and also to expand penetration in the global arena, SME owners should come together and form a confederation while complying with their own limits and boundaries. The formation of export consortia by SMEs is an effective way to live up their dream of becoming active players in the export game as it will help them to get over the barriers of costs and lack of skills.


Defining export consortium
A voluntary group formed by small and medium sized businesses which pool in their own expertise, experience, resources and business network is called an export consortium. While in the consortium, they still enjoy their legal, financial and managerial rights. Their objective is to boost the export of goods and services of its members through joint actions.
This group promotes different levels of strategic cooperation among enterprises with their collective activities and initiatives to reach out to overseas markets.


Generally, such consortiums are non-profit alliances, and the members do not have to transfer control of their business to others.


The benefits it offers
SMEs can efficiently make a way into and enhance their market share in foreign markets at reduced expenditure and risk with the formation of export consortia. Besides, it allows the affiliates to improve productivity, increase knowledge and gain a way into larger markets and contracts with joint efforts. By and large, the voluntary group of enterprises is from a same business stream and the collaboration is aimed to make these enterprises globally competitive.


Despite these benefits, export consortia are also faced with some impediments such as delays emerging from the process of looking for like-minded and appropriate business partners and ensuring a productive partnering which itself is a huge effort asking for cohered efforts, dedication and resources. These challenges of a collaborative venture, however, fall short in front of the benefits of an export consortium. Member SMEs must work cordially and efficiently for the consortium to bring them access to exports.
An export consortium allows the members to also opt for collective bidding. This enables them to cater to large orders from foreign buyers which may not have been possible for a single enterprise of a small size.


The way forward

SMEs are progressively focussing on improved production methods, penetrative marketing strategies and management capabilities with the help of their vigour, flexibility and innovative drive in order to uphold and strengthen their operations in the global market. However, when tried, unity and collaboration brings good results as it follows the old saying 'unity is strength and division is weakness'.