Nothing is more important than the issue of adequate financial cushion for entreprises. Availing credit for first time entrepreneurs is one of the most challenging aspects of business activity in India. Although there are a number of banks, venture capitals and angel investors taking care of initial seed capital for many small and medium enterprises (SME’s), it’s not a smooth ride for a majority of start ups.

In this age of global competitiveness, small business owners are often faced with a dilemma of selling on credit to various buyers. While selling on credit may offer its share of business development opportunities, it can very easily turn into a vicious cycle of default and delinquency.

The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) continue to play a dominant role in driving the Indian economy with its total contribution of 8% towards the GDP. It has registered a growth rate of 10.8% and contributes around 40% towards total industrial production.

With the evolution of investment practices in this era of financial freedom across the globe, a new investment tool - impact investing has been slowly and steadily finding its feet allowing for the best of both the worlds. Simply speaking impact investing is the name for strategic investment opportunities enabling investors to gain by investing capital in businesses that can generate financial returns and also helping a larger social incentive like a social objective or an environmental cause. Impact investing as the name suggests allows for mutual growth of business financially as well as social objectives and responsibilities for a larger cause.

Indian Angel Network, the first and now Asia's largest Angel network comprising successful Indian entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs with a passion for early stage businesses, has announced an Angel Investment of Rs. 3.25 crore in Peel-Works, a cloud enabled Sales Force Transformation and BPO Company based out of Mumbai.

Set up by a team of management graduates with extensive experience in the FMCG sector in the Human Resources and Sales Management, Peel-Works  offers customized as well as productized solutions for very large to medium size companies inFMCG, telecom and insurance sector that conduct their business using indirect sales force.

The government has decided to infuse an equity of Rs 300 crore into National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC) in the next three years to provide marketing support to small-scale sector. NSIC, a PSU under the MSME Ministry, provides technical, financial and marketing help to small industry.

"In order to strengthen the NSIC and make it an apex organisation for coordination of marketing support programmes for MSMEs, the government has decided to provide an equity support of Rs 300 crore to NSIC in three years," said Virbhadra Singh, Minister forMicro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Ministry in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

An online small business platform that creates access to a competitive environment of lenders to empower the entrepreneur—Biz2Credit was founded in 2007. The online platform matches entrepreneurs with credit solutions based on their business profile and preferences in a safe and price transparent environment.

With over 10 years of experience in the financial services space, Ramit Arora, Co-Founder and President of Biz2Credit, heads the company’s operations and handles larger bank and client relationships.  He also oversees all strategic web initiatives for the company.

Intel Capital, Intel Corporation’s global investment and M&A organization, announced investments of $40 million in 10 Asian companies, including two from India, which reflects the rapid spread of technology innovation across the continent.

The Indian companies include Happiest Minds Technologies and TELiBrahma Convergent Communications.

Headquartered in Bangalore India, Happiest Minds is an innovative IT services company. It offers skills, IP and domain expertise across a set of focused areas which include IT Services, Software Product Engineering, Infrastructure Management, Security, Testing and Consulting.