Laghu Udyog Bharati

Weekly Insights for Entrepreneurs

Steel PLI 1.2 to focus on advanced products; MSMEs to also benefit

Union minister of steel H.D. Kumaraswamy said the third round will also open up new avenues for micro small and medium enterprises and existing producers who have expanded or upgraded their capacities following the earlier phases.
The PLI 1.2 is aimed at attracting fresh investments in categories such as super alloys, cold rolled grain oriented steel, stainless steel long and flat products, titanium alloys, and coated steels, materials that are essential for next-generation industrial and defence applications.
The incentive rates would be 4% to 15% on incremental sales , varying by sub-category and production year.
Indian-registered companies involved in end-to-end manufacturing of the specified products can submit applications via online portal within 30 days from the launch.

MSMEs Hit Hard as QCO Expansion Raises Compliance Burden: DPIIT Panel

The committee has suggested that the government scrap 27 existing QCOs covering critical industrial inputs such as plastics, polymers, base metals, footwear, and electronic components to ease pressure on manufacturers. The panel has also proposed suspending QCOs on 112 products and deferring upcoming orders affecting raw materials, intermediates, and capital goods essential to downstream industries.
The panel, chaired by NITI Aayog member Rajiv Gauba, includes representatives from the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), NITI Aayog.
QCOs — mandatory product standards notified by government departments in consultation with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) — were originally designed to ensure product quality and safeguard consumer health and safety. However, the committee observed that in recent years, the scope of QCOs has expanded beyond finished goods to include industrial inputs, resulting in higher compliance burdens, especially for MSMEs.

M1xchange Expands MSME Credit with S2S Deep-Tier Financing

While traditional TReDS platforms have focused primarily on corporate-to-MSME financing, Small-to-Small (S2S) extends this framework to enable MSME-to-MSME transactions. The model allows smaller vendors and ancillary suppliers to access formal credit based on validated trade data rather than collateral or balance sheet strength, improving liquidity and resilience throughout the supply chain.
Through S2S, MSMEs gain access to timely financing for procurement from other MSME vendors, thereby promoting higher trade volumes within the MSME ecosystem and ensuring reliable, on-time payments between MSME buyers and sellers.
By making both purchase and sales data of MSMEs available from the M1 TReDS platform, S2S is garnering growing interest and trust from financiers, who are leveraging this data to extend credit access across the MSME ecosystem.

Startup push: DPIIT signs MoUs with 50+ firms to boost manufacturing innovation; aims to scale startup ecosystem through industry tie-ups

The department has been engaging with corporates, industry associations, veterans, and unicorns to encourage the creation of manufacturing incubators and promote closer collaboration between established firms and emerging startups.
Such incubators offer plug-and-play facilities, lowering the burden of capital expenditure for product-focused startups while enabling faster prototyping, testing, and design development.
The partnerships are part of a larger government drive to foster innovation-led manufacturing, especially for startups.
“Manufacturing startups require the backing of ecosystem stakeholders to grow and scale. Manufacturing-focused incubators play a key role in providing shared infrastructure, pilot testing, and early-stage manufacturing support, ” the official explained.

IIT Madras launches platform to bridge information gap in startup ecosystem

The digital platform hosts information on over 2,75,000 startups, 15,000 angel investors, 5,500 venture capital firms, 1,400 incubators, 800 banks, and 110 government schemes, making it one of the most comprehensive startup databases in the country.
The platform offers search and analytics tools to help users identify relevant investors, compare growth and funding trends, and generate tailored outreach reports.
The project also aims to support early-stage entrepreneurs, students, and researchers who often face challenges in finding credible information about investor networks or government schemes.
“Our goal is to level the playing field by giving not just to every entrepreneur but to every citizen. ”

India's deeptech market to reach $30 billion by 2030: Redseer report

India's deeptech sector is likely to witness exponential growth driven by defence innovation and a surge in global robotics.
India has observed a significant shift in spending towards defence deeptech, with the national defence budget doubling over the past decade to $80 billion.
India's emerging status as a trusted, low-cost global hub outside China is being cemented by deeptech advancements in robotics. The global robotic machines market, valued at $60 billion, is anticipated to surge to nearly $230 billion by 2030, with humanoids, representing a breakout category and an estimated $10 billion opportunity in the same period.
Immediate opportunities identified by Redseer lie in autonomous systems, AI-enabled training, and energy propulsion technologies, particularly in the development and deployment of intelligent and resilient drones.

Many states in difficulty due to freebies, high committed expenditure, says FM Sitharaman

Stating that there is a thin line between investing money in productive assets and giving freebies, Finance Minister said many states are “in difficulty ” as such giveaways are piling up. 70 per cent of their revenues going for committed expenditure of salaries, pensions etc.
It is then borrowing is resorted to, when revenue doesn’t increase much and the levels of committed expenditure and freebies are high, the Finance Minister said.
In 2017, the NK Singh Committee had recommended a ceiling for general government debt of 60 per cent of GDP — 40 per cent for the Centre and 20 per cent for states. The general government debt level in India is currently over 80 per cent with the Centre’s share at about 57 per cent.
The central government has targeted a declining debt-GDP ratio to 50±1 per cent by March 31, 2031.

RuPay is becoming the card of choice; all credit to UPI

RuPay has seen its credit card market share climb to nearly 16%, from just 3% two years ago, after the RBI allowed RuPay credit cards to be linked exclusively to the UPI platform in late 2022.
Lower MDR structure for smaller merchants has accelerated adoption. More than 50 million merchants now use UPI for transactions, while merchants with point-of-sale devices that accept all credit cards number fewer than 10 million.
“Linking of RuPay credit cards on UPI has revolutionised digital payments by combining UPI's simplicity with credit flexibility, ” PwC India said.

India’s unemployment rate falls to 5.2% in July–September, rural jobs rises

The share of rural employment in the agriculture sector rose from 53.5 per cent to 57.7 per cent during July-September due to Kharif agricultural operations.
The share of workers engaged in the urban tertiary sector also increased to 62 per cent during July-September from 61.7 per cent in the previous quarter, reflecting a higher level of employment.
Self-employed workers in rural areas witnessed a notable rise to 62.8 per cent during July-September from 60.7 per cent in the preceding quarter of April-June.
Female participation in the labour force also witnessed an increase to 33.7 per cent in July–September from 33.4 per cent in April–June.

Data centre boom: India’s capacity to hit 8GW by 2030; $30 billion investment seen driving AI, cloud growth

It could boost data centre leasing revenues fivefold to reach $8 billion by the end of the decade.
India’s colocation data centre capacity — where businesses lease space and infrastructure from operators — has already seen a fivefold rise to 1.7GW.
The sector is operating at nearly full capacity, with occupancy levels averaging 97 per cent, highlighting robust demand.
Mumbai and Chennai together host about 70 per cent of the total installed capacity.
The anticipated $30 billion capital expenditure will generate opportunities across sectors — including $10 billion in electrical and power systems, $7 billion in racks and fit-outs, $6 billion in real estate, $4 billion in cooling systems, and $1 billion in network infrastructure.

IIT Madras develops painless, affordable glucose monitor to help millions with diabetes

The IIT Madras team has developed a modular system that combines reusable electronics and a low-power display unit with a disposable microneedle sensor patch.
“By making glucose monitoring painless, discreet, and affordable, it encourages people to check their levels more regularly, understand their body’s patterns, and take timely action. Over time, it can reduce emergencies, hospital visits, and the strain on families and healthcare systems, ”

IIT Guwahati researchers develop novel material for oil spill cleanup and fuel adulteration detection

“... have developed a Phase-Selective Organogelator (PSOG) molecule, a special class of safe materials. The PSOG was rationally designed to undergo a hierarchical supramolecular self-assembly process which ultimately leads to oil gelation. It can trap oils such as kerosene and diesel through a self-assembly process, similar to how soap molecules organize themselves in water”.
Another potential use of the developed organogel is to detect the adulteration of kerosene.
As the next step, the research team aims to advance the research towards detecting various types of fuel adulteration. Additionally, the team is working on enhancing the efficiency of the detection process by refining the design and functionality of the gelator molecule.

Smart windows, rapid food quality test kits among R&D projects on display at IIT-Delhi Open House

Automatic detection and grading of celiac disease, energy-efficient electrochromic smart windows, next-generation gas sensors, and rapid food quality test kits were among the diverse research projects showcased.
Open House 2025 focused on 10 themes -- Healthcare and biotechnology, Manufacturing, Industry 4.0 and robotics, Smart and sustainable infrastructure, Advanced materials and devices, Energy, climate and sustainability, Quantum and semiconductor technologies, Next generation communication, Management, policy, and social sciences; AI-ML, data science and algorithms, and fundamental science.
There were more than 200 scientific posters and live demos, and 20 laboratories highlighting cutting-edge research across diverse domains ranging from computer science and AI to defence and national security that offer new opportunities for innovation, collaboration, and national development.

IIT-R researchers create self-organising micro-particles

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee have developed microscopic, life-like hydrogel particles that can organise themselves without any external control. This discovery could transform the future of intelligent materials and autonomous soft robots.
The team demonstrated that by designing microscopic systems powered by internal enzymatic reactions, it is possible to recreate one of life's core principles: self-organisation.
These life-like microagents, powered by simple chemistry, could form the basis of the next generation of intelligent, energy-efficient materials capable of performing complex tasks autonomously.

ISRO Develops Advanced Lunar Data Products From Chandrayaan-2, Enhancing Future Moon Exploration

ISRO announced that it has received advanced data products from the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, including new parameters on the physical and dielectric properties of the Moon’s polar regions.
The agency described this development as a significant enhancement for future global exploration.
The Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter, in lunar orbit since 2019, has provided approximately 1,400 radar datasets and high-quality data from its Dual Frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar (DFSAR).
Using these data sets, scientists at the Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad have developed advanced data products on potential presence of water-ice, surface roughness, and important electrical properties.

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