Highlights from YourStory’s India MSME Summit 2021

Bringing several SMB founders and key ecosystem stakeholders together in a 10-day event, YourStory's third annual India MSME Summit 2021 delved deep into how MSMEs can leverage a wide range of technology solutions to build their own roadmaps for resilience and recovery amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 60 speakers and over 25 engaging and insightful sessions later, the summit drew to a close with the grand finale event on June 27, 2021 — MSME Day.

From business lessons learnt from the first and second wave of COVID-19, the role of technology in helping businesses survive and become competitive, the science of capital, cash flow, and financial management, managing the shift towards remote working, and more — the event brought on many key insights to help MSMEs in these unprecedented times.

In case you missed it, you can read some of the highlights from the grand finale and the rest of the 10-day event here.

Read all about how the Indian startup ecosystem is battling the second wave of COVID-19 here.

Here are some useful tools to help you find the nearest vaccine centres in real-time.

You can also share a tribute to COVID-19 warriors, saviours, and survivors here.

The Interview

With over $17 trillion of payment flows in the Asia Pacific yet to be digitised, there has never been a more opportune time for fintechs to solve for financial inclusion. 

As the Indian payments landscape continues to evolve, Arvind Ronta, Head of Products, India and South Asia, Visa, talks about the Visa Fintech Initiative: India and how it hopes to identify and work with some of the best and brightest fintech startups in the country.

Editor’s Pick: How Flipkart seller Chitra Vyas build her dry fruits brand

Techie-turned-entrepreneur Chitra Vyas — who used to sell jewellery, handicrafts, and a few electronics items through her website ShoppingWhopping — became one of the highest performing sellers on Flipkart in just three months after joining in 2016.

However, amidst COVID-19, she correctly anticipated that sales in the fashion and footwear category would go down and immediately pivoted to sell dry fruits under the Soft Art brand. Read more.

Startup Spotlight

Upskilling engineering students to acquire industry-level skills

Entrepreneur Vishnu TU experienced the need for upskilling personally after he was rejected from 17 companies during his placements. A biomedical engineer, within few days of finally landing a job as a junior sales associate, he realised that his engineering skills were not utilised in the job.

Thus, last year, along with Niveditha R, Vishnu launched Machenn Innovations in Coimbatore to offer digital manufacturing training to engineering students. Read more.

News & Updates

• The UAE's sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has picked up a minority stake in the IPO-bound digital payments player MobiKwik for nearly $20 million (about Rs 150 crore), valuing it at $700 million.

• The Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME) and SIDBI have signed a pact to help MSMEs address challenges, including expanding credit access, increasing formalisation, building competitive clusters, and improving the legal framework for ease of doing business.

• In his monthly Mann ki Baat broadcast, PM Narendra Modi urged people to shed vaccine hesitancy and get themselves inoculated soon, cautioning them that the threat of COVID-19 remains. 

Before you go, stay inspired with… 

"Online selling gives you ready data about consumer behaviour. This helps businesses to innovate according to the market demands, which is essential to survive and sustain."

— Hirdyesh Mordani, Co-founder of MyEasyStore

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