We need cable operator like service providers in IT also: Ravi Shanker (IAS), Additional Secretary, Dept. of IT, Ministry of CIT, Govt. Of India

New Delhi: SME Channels, India’s first IT Magazine for SMEs Business has organised its annual event – ‘SME Channels Achievers Awards 2010-2011’  felicitate at Hotel Eros – Managed by Hilton, Nehru Place, New Delhi on 2nd September 2011.

The event was attended by more than 650 people from the Indian IT and SME industry. It was graced with the presence of Shri. N. Ravi Shanker (IAS), Additional Secretary, Department of IT, Ministry of CIT, Govt of India as Chair Person, Dr. Ajay Kumar (IAS), Joint Secretary, Govt. of India, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, as Chief Guest and three special guests of honour included Dr. N. Vijayaditya, Controller of Certifying Authority, Govt. of India, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Shri Samarendra Sahu, Addl. Development Commissioner, Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises, Govt. of India and Shri Suresh Yadavendra, Director, Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Development Institute, Ministry of MSME, Govt. of India.

Addressing the gathering, Chair Person of the event, Shri N. Ravi Shanker (IAS), Additional Secretary, said, “Often enough it is said that the SMEs are the backbone of the Indian economy in the sense that they not only drive the economy with employing large pool of manpower but also add flavour to the productivity that is there. In the time of recession, the SMEs can stand up to the fluctuating fortunes of the recession. Now, we need to understand that where exactly is the role of IT in the SME sector? If electronics is everywhere why the SMEs are outside the loop. It is a question of trying to bring the whole package of activities to the SMEs. It is almost like when cable TV came to India, there was a revolution. There was a revolution because we de-risked ourselves. The operator was the person who was something of that the SMEs are looking for. I would like to think similar short of model for the SME sector. Like the cable operator, there has to be a solution provider who can provide all the IT infrastructure including hardware, software and only the client base activities the SMEs would be rendered to. It is the SMEs who would de-risk themselves from buying computers and upgrading it and procuring the software on top of it and hiring people to manage it. Today we have all new jargons platform as a service, software as a service and infrastructure as a service. These are all discussed in various platforms but the fact remains that these are good things for the SMEs. There is a world of opportunity for the IT organization for the SMEs. If the industry cutting across all the technology providers if they create a consortia and offer the solution as unified applications the whole of industry will be”

Special Guest of honour, Dr. N Vijayaditya, Controller, Certifying Authority, said, “With the maya world or e-world, everything happens instantaneously without physical presence. The industry has millions of SMEs which creates a lot of employment so a lot of opportunity in that. If you look at the IT industry, the SMEs have gone to become very large companies irrespective of geographies – be it in India or international market. These are the basis for innovations. It is a major area of this particular era. In the years to come they are going to play much bigger role. In my area – in the certifications space- the people are very small organizations they provide certification. Service is going to be major criteria.”

Congratulating SME Channels, Special Guest of honour Shri Samarendra Sahu, Addl. Commissioner, Ministry of MSME, said, “The ministry of MSME is adopting a number of schemes to assist the growth of the sector. The schemes cover all five important verticals including credit, market, technology, infrastructure and skill development. The govt. has set up a credit relief fund to provide the MSME entrepreneurs who are unable to place collateral security. The guarantee covers upto 75% of the credit facility upto Rs.50 lakhs.  Above Rs.50 lakhs up to Rs.100 lakhs, the guarantee covers upto 50%. If the loan amount is less than Rs.5 lakhs, the guarantee coverage is upto 85%. Besides our national manufacturing competitive programme known as MNCP is a flagship scheme of MSME. This has 10 specific components aimed at improving process, design, technology and market access. These components seek to introduce best elements of improving competitiveness among the MSMEs, who are often unable to afford such practices and techniques.”

The Chief Guest of the event, Dr. Ajay Kumar (IAS), Joint Secretary, Department of IT, Govt. of India, said, “It is a unique combination of SME and IT. I want to emphasise the point that a huge change that IT is bringing to the economy and to the SMEs. There is a study shows that after the use of IT, the companies take less time to become global vendor. What it means that IT has given the power to even the smallest of units to make it to the global stage. Not one but there are several of them. The good news is that, today, we have very big IT companies – MNCs and domestic player but the fact is that 90% of the IT companies are SMEs. These SMEs are going to become huge multinationals tomorrow. Today, we are seeing fair amount of saturation in the Metro cities. The government is trying to focus attentions in tier-2-tier-3 cities. It is the opportunity for the start ups to use the opportunity and utilise it. I was reading the story of naaptol.com where he was saying that his first company before six years did not work but now when he came up with naaptol.com, it is a success. There are several such cases. Not only in software space but also in the electronic space, the small sector has a lot to contribute. The large part of our component industry is dominated by SMEs and it is our effort as we have the whole policy framework for such development of the electronic manufacturing of the country. After software success, a lot of people are coming in electronic hardware manufacturing space. To attract the SMEs in this space, the Govt. is bringing down the threshold of the policy where the subsidy can be provided.”

The event witnessed top performers of the IT industry felicitated in 68 categories of awards. When Dell India won the Best PC & Notebook Award, HCL Infosystems won the Best Netbook award Samsung Electronics India won the Best Tablet, the Best Entry-Level Printer and the Best Display Award. Similarly, HP India won the Best Virtual PC and the Best Printer award, Iomega an EMC Company won the Best Network Storage, IBM India won the Best Server-X86 award, Canon India won the Best Printer A4 Award, Epson India won the Best Award for Inkjet Printers, TVS Electronics won the Best Dot-matrix Printer award, APC by Schneider Electric won the Best UPS award, Siemens Enterprise won the Best Unified Communication award, Kaspersky Lab India won the Best Security Antivirus award, Elitecore Technologies won the Best UTM award, LG Electronics won the Best Surveillance award, Western Digital won the Best HDD award, Transcend won the Best Flash Storage award, Gigabyte Technology India won the Best Value Motherboard award, Zotac International won the Best Graphic Card award, Intel Technology India won the Best Processor Award, Kingston Technology won the Best Memory Module award,  D-Link won the Best Networking Brand for SMEs award, Tally Solutions won the Best Enterprise Solution for SMEs award, NEC India won the Best Projector award.

In the category of top 10 Entrepreneur, the awards went respectively to Mr. Sanjiv Krishen, Chairman, Iris Computers, Mr. V.K Bhandari, CMD, Supertron Electronics, Mr. Kunwer Sachdev, CMD, Su-Kam Power Systems, Mr. K.R Naik, Executive Chairman, Smartlink Network Systems, Mr. Hemal Patel, CEO, Elitecore Technologies, Mr. Govind Rammurthy, CEO, Micro World, Mr. P.R.V Raja, VC, MD & CEO, Ramco Systems, Mr. Atul Khosla, Director, Om Nanotech, Mr. Kailash Katkar, CEO and Founder, Quick Heal Technologies and Mr. R.K Bansal, MD, Uniline Energy systems.

In the category of top 10 Solution Vendors the awards were won by Cisco Systems Pvt. Ltd., HP India Sales Pvt. Ltd., Dell India Pvt. Ltd., Lenovo India Pvt. Ltd., Microsoft India Pvt. Ltd., Canon India Pvt. Ltd., Iomega an EMC Company, Tally Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Samsung Electronics Pvt. Ltd. and Netgear Technologies India Pvt. Ltd.

In the category of top 10 solution provider the award was won by Progressive Infotech , Precission Infomatic, WeP Peripherals, Sogo Computers, Team Computers, PC Solutions, Value Point Systems, Targus Technologies, Progression Infonet and GoIP Global Services.

And in the top 10 products category, the awards were won by Digisol DG-GS1008D, Samsung ML-1666, Check point ABRA, Lenovo Think Pad Edge 14, Canon Laser Shot LBP6300DN, Iomega Storcentre IX12-300R, Trend Micro Worry Free Business Security, Western Digital AV-25 500 GB, Zyxel 3G Router NBG4115 Wirless N Lite and Strontium DDR 3 – 1066 MHZ Desktop.