The government’s Startup India campaign aimed at boosting entrepreneurship will get a rural avatar in the soon-to-be-launched Deen Dayal Upadhyay Swaniyojan Yojana The programme being designed by the rural development ministry will be backed by MUDRA Bank loans, innovative credit linkages a…
Crowdsourcing job referrals gains popularity over traditional methods
Anandram Sarda, a chartered accountant in Hyderabad who has done his articleship from PriceWaterhouseCoopers, finds the concept of a crowdsourced referral platform far more cost effective against traditional methods for job referrals. MintMesh, a crowdsourced referral platform for jobs and servic…
Local logistics companies gain popularity in smaller cities
Intra-city logistics solutions providers are a growing tribe in tier II and III cities as traffic problems force the, municipality to oppose entry of heavy vehicles. Additionally, burgeoning e-commerce deliveries and a demand-supply lapse in the unorganised ‘tempo’ segment is helping …
PM Modi to launch Stand Up India programme in April
After the launch of the Start Up India programme, the government is now gearing up for Stand Up India, which mandates each bank branch to provide one loan to a Dalit or a borrower categorised as scheduled tribe or scheduled caste, and the other to a woman entrepreneur. While the scheme is already…
Askme Group to help arrange Rs 1,000 crore of loans for 10,000 SMEs
The Askme Group will help arrange Rs 1,000 crore of loans for 10,000 online and offline small and medium enterprises that are listed on its platforms and directories by the end of financial year 2017. The finance arm of the group, Askme-Fin, has tied up with non-bank finance companies, banks and …
PHD Chamber & Avian Media mull over skill enhancement for MSMEs
The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector, considered a key player in the Make in India campaign, needs more funds and ‘hand-holding’ for greater Information and Communication Technology (ICT) push and skill enhancement, say a joint study by PHD Chamber and Avian Media. According to t…
Revival of MSMEs by RBI applauded by FICCI-Confederation
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), including Khadi and Village/ Rural Enterprises, play a significant role in the economic growth of the country owing to their contribution to production, exports and employment. The sector has slowly come into the limelight, due to the increased focus f…
Mukesh Bansal, Ankit Nagori to launch a health, fitness startup
Mukesh Bansal, cofounder of online fashion retailer Myntra, and Ankit Nagori, former chief business officer at Flipkart, have joined hands to set up a healthcare, sports and fitness company. The move comes barely six weeks after Bansal, former head honcho at Flipkart, and Nagori resigned from the…
Ola acquires Chennai-based Qarth technologies
Ride-hailing app Ola said it has acquired Chennai-based Qarth Technologies, which has developed a mobile payments app X-Pay, in a move aimed at strengthening its payments business — Ola Money. Ola did not disclose the size of the deal. The IIT-Madras-incubated startup, founded in 2012, offers a p…
Abraaj, others put $150 million in the Bigbasket
Online grocer BigBasket has raised $150 million (about Rs 1,000 crore) in funding led by Dubai’s Abraaj Group, as it seeks to establish its turf through expansions and by strengthening its express delivery service to overcome competition from younger rivals. An investor said that the compan…