Tradeindia Launches News Portal for SMEs

Tradeindia, the country's leading B2B portal has once again achieved the distinction of becoming the first B2B portal in the nation to come up with a news portal for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
Today tradeindia.com provides a platform to buyers and sellers across the world and is the ultimate destination for SMEs which comprise mainly manufacturers, exporters and service providers seeking international buyers, by offering them complete business solutions through various online services besides contributing over USD 3 billion to India's annual ecommerce.
Launching the portal, the CEO of Tradeindia, Mr Bikky Khosla said, "SME Times -- the news portal of Tradeindia will be a one-stop information library for the exim sector. With our wide reach, news can help to improve business practices. As SMEs are exposed to new information, ideas, and values, many will become increasingly aware and interested and, eventually, they will be able to decide what action to take that is best for their businesses."

"News coverage can contribute towards creating awareness and can make the trading community aware of the methods and services that can help overcome hurdles and benefit them. Without doubt, news coverage helps people make informed business decisions based on expert opinion and others' experiences. News can inform people about how to take action and can reinforce individual decisions to adopt best business practices."

"Apart from a daily dose of news, the USP of the portal will rest on the value-added articles written by its staffers, experts and freelancers. These articles will only be those from which SME-holders can profit," Mr Khosla added.

The entire business module of Tradeindia revolves around the pledge to 'Help SMEs build a self-reliant India'. The database of Tradeindia which consists of more than half a million exporters-importers is the first and foremost pointer towards the fact that the company is peerless. Thus Tradeindia works towards helping SMEs to learn to assimilate, work, exploit, and explore all the information that can help them in their businesses. Tradeindia endeavours to educate them on how to use various user-friendly Internet-based solutions for business promotions.

To keep SMEs informed on the recent policy changes, international trends and how these changes might affect their businesses, Tradeindia comes out with its weekly newsletter, conducts online surveys and organises panel discussions and hosts a Discussion Forum aimed at creating a platform for the business community to exchange business ideas and issues.

But now, the news portal will be able to provide information faster.

SMEs, nine times out of ten, tend to lag behind because they are ill informed about the world around them. Most of them are into business without even having any knowledge of the market realities. They are unaware of what the competitors are doing. Thus they are unable to keep up with the changing times.

News portals are often SMEs' first source of new information. Also, news portals help confirm and reinforce the information that people receive about latest developments in the business sector. However with no news portal devoted entirely to the needs of this sector, SMEs still lurk in the blissful backwaters of ignorance.

Tradeindia understands that usually opinions are made based on the news supplied to business-holders. An individual has no time to testify/verify the genuineness of the news personally and thus depends upon the information supplied to him by a medium - be it a news portal or a newspaper or TV. Thus news guides people and moulds public opinion.

The failure to get information fast and deliver in the ways one runs the business adds to business inequalities. Businesses that have adjusted their day-to-day operations based on the information they receive have succeeded.

Today's dynamic economic scenario calls for keeping oneself up to date with the changes in policies - both domestic and global. Despite the initiatives/ schemes offered by the government many SMEs are unaware of them because information on these schemes never reach them.

Keeping this in mind Tradeindia has come up with a news portal 'SME Times'. The portal has been carefully designed to fulfill the needs of each and every SME. Over nine clearly demarcated categories and more than 16 sub-categories will carry news reports that are updated on a minute-to-minute basis.

The perceptive of industry stalwarts on polity matters is of utmost importance for SMEs to read and act upon accordingly. Thus the 'Editorial' and 'Indepth' sections will have the views of our Editor and a panel of experts respectively. Any new development that will have an impact on the industry will be discussed extensively in these sections.

The other value-added features including 'Market watch' and 'Forex Rates' will keep readers updated to a fraction of change.