Laghu Udyog Bharati

Weekly Insights for Entrepreneurs

Goyal asks MSMEs to tap exports through Bharat Mart in Dubai

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal urged MSMEs to take advantage of the Bharat Mart, a warehouse-cum-sales point spread over one lakh square metres in Dubai, specially designed for small companies to tap the global markets.
Goyal said that Bharat Mart is equipped to house 1,400 units of MSMEs with a small front office to show-case products, a warehouse and housing facility for employees.
Global buyers from Europe, GCC and Africa visit country specific outlets in Dubai to check for quality products and place orders. DP World, the shipping partner for Bharat Mart will handle the transportation part from the warehouse to global buyers.
MSMEs have to come forward to take advantage of Bharat Mart in Dubai which is being offered at a highly concessional rate to them for storing their goods at the warehouse and deliver the orders then and there to global buyers.

The stagnation trap - How Indian MSMEs can break free & scale

Data from the Udyam portal, the Government of India’s official MSME registration platform, shows that between its inception in 2020 and March 2025, only 0.4 per cent of micro-enterprises grew into small businesses, and a mere 0.05 per cent of small companies graduated to the medium enterprise category.
Only about 28 per cent of Indian MSMEs grew at 5 per cent–10 per cent or higher CAGR during 2020–2025, while 60 per cent of Indian MSMEs remained stagnant, and 12 per cent experienced degrowth over the same period.
Why is the sector not growing? The answer lies in a web of operational and structural challenges that trap most MSMEs in a cycle of low growth, poor reliability, and limited reinvestment.
Breaking the trap...

Supreme Court Clarifies Limitation Law’s Applicability to MSME Disputes

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the Limitation Act, 1963, is applicable to arbitration proceedings under the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (MSMED).
Writing the judgment, Justice Narasimha noted: “The Limitation Act does not apply to conciliation proceedings under Section 18(2) of the MSMED Act. A time-barred claim can be referred to conciliation as the expiry of the limitation period does not extinguish the right to recover the amount, including through a settlement agreement.”
The bench also underscored that there is no legal prohibition in either the Limitation Act, the MSMED Act, or judicial precedent that bars conciliation over

IIT-B startup builds India\'s most efficient solar cell with 29.8% conversion

A startup from IIT Bombay, Advanced Renewable Tandem-Photovoltaics India (ART-PV India), has developed a new type of solar cell.
It can convert almost 30% of sunlight into electricity, much more than regular solar panels. The existing solar panel converts up to 20% energy of sunlight.
This new solar cell uses perovskite and silicon together in a special two-layer design, called a tandem solar cell. The top layer, made of perovskite, absorbs high-energy sunlight, while the bottom silicon layer captures the remaining light. This design allows the solar cell to collect more sunlight, producing more electricity.

IIT Madras-incubated Amber Wings gets DGCA nod for hybrid cargo drone ATVA-1

The startup said the certification opens the door for high-frequency, last-mile deliveries utilising drones that are planned, developed, and produced entirely in India.
The ATVA-1 has been approved for commercial use round-the-clock, seven days a week, including night missions.
According to Amber Wings, this certification demonstrates that the ATVA-1 meets safety standards and is ready for large-scale deployment. Earlier, the startup received DGCA’s nod for its agricultural drone, Vihaa.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation estimates that India’s drone industry could surpass ₹5,000 crore by 2030. Amber plans to capitalise on the market by manufacturing drones for e-commerce, healthcare delivery, manufacturing, and emergency services.

Eight chipsets designed by IIT students sent to fabs: IT Minister Vaishnaw

Students at Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have designed 20 chipsets and eight of them have already been “taped out” and sent to global foundries and the Semi-Conductor Laboratory in Mohali for fabrication, electronics and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.
He credited the spurt in semiconductor research to the government providing the latest electronic design automation tools (EDA) to 270 colleges and 70 startups.
A chip is a single piece of semiconductor material, typically silicon, onto which an electronic circuit is etched while a chipset is a group of interconnected chips designed to work together to manage and direct the flow of data between the processor, memory, storage, and other peripherals in a computing device. Taping out means completion of the design process before sending to a manufacturing facility or foundry for fabrication.

India\’s New Income Tax Bill 2025: An Overview

The central government will likely table the 3,709-page draft law in Parliament on July 21, 2025, marking the start of the monsoon session. The existing law has undergone 65 amendments and more than 4,000 individual changes, leading to a complicated and disjointed legal framework. The new Income Tax Bill seeks to streamline these provisions into a unified and modern tax code, better aligned with current economic conditions and technological developments. While the existing Income Tax Act, 1961, consists of 52 chapters spread across 823 pages, the new bill consolidates the content into 23 chapters and 16 schedules over 622 pages...

Companies affected in IPR cases can press criminal charges as 'victim': SC

This means that corporate entities affected by violations of such rights could pursue criminal proceedings as the victim.
The apex court Bench held it was clear that “Section 2(wa) of the CrPC has thoughtfully accorded an expansive understanding to the term ‘victim’ and not a narrow and restrictive meaning”.
The proviso to Section 372 grants victims the right to appeal against acquittal of the accused, conviction for a lesser offence, and inadequate compensation. If the court orders insufficient compensation for the victim, the victim can appeal.

PM Dhan Dhanya Krishi Yojana: Big gift to farmers as Cabinet approves Rs 24,000 cr scheme

The scheme is designed to enhance agricultural productivity, promote crop diversification, strengthen post-harvest storage at panchayat and block levels, improve irrigation infrastructure and increase the availability of both short and long-term credit for farmers. The programme will cover 100 districts with low productivity, moderate crop intensity and below average credit parameters.
“PM Dhan Dhanya Krishi Yojana will benefit 1.7 crore farmers and aims to create ample opportunities in rural areas so that migration becomes an option, not a necessity,” the Finance Minister had said in her Budget speech.

Free AI training for 5.5 lakh village entrepreneurs: Ashwini Vaishnaw

The workforce manning the 5,60,000 lakh Common Service Centres across the country, will be imparted free training in Artificial Intelligence (AI), electronics and information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said. The move is part of the government's aim to train 10 lakh citizens in advanced digital technologies such as AI, machine learning, data analytics, cybersecurity, AI as part of the India AI Mission.
Vaishnaw said VLEs will be trained in the latest technological trends. 'Under the IndiaAI mission, the government has decided to equip 10 lakh people with AI skills. Of this, we will give priority to and train 5.5 lakh VLEs,' Vaishnaw said, urging more village-level entrepreneurs to join the training programme.

Shukla conducts 7 Indian experiments aboard ISS during Axiom-4 mission

Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla — the first Indian to visit the International Space Station (ISS) and the second Indian to venture into space after 41 years — has laid the foundation for the country’s ambitious Gaganyaan mission.
Of the total 60 experiments conducted by the Axiom-4 crew at the ISS, seven were designed by Indian researchers and conducted by him. The basic idea of these researches was to gauge space’s interaction with life.
Here are the seven experiments that Shukla conducted during his stay at the ISS, based on data shared by Axiom 4, and media reports….

AIC-CCMB planning trials for Chikungunya vaccine with indigenously developed mRNA technology

“Chikungunya is a serious, major debilitating disease in India and it does not yet have a vaccine. We have already demonstrated the ability to make use of mRNA technology to develop vaccines with a ‘Proof of Concept’ (PoC) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our lab data trials show our Chikungunya vaccine works,” disclosed AIC-CCMB chief executive officer N. Madhusudhana Rao.
The lab experiments conducted on animals showed that the vaccine candidate can produce antibodies against Chikungunya proteins. The next phase will be to infect the animals and check if the virus load has decreased upon injecting the developed vaccine, he explained.

IIT Madras develops & launches Bharat’s lightest active wheelchair

IIT Madras launched YD One — Bharat’s lightest active wheelchair and the country’s first indigenously developed, precision-built mono-tube rigid-frame wheelchair, designed to match the world’s best.
“YD One is built to international standards and fully customised for each user’s body, posture, and daily mobility needs. Weighing just 9 kilograms, its ultra-lightweight, precision-engineered design delivers maximum strength and energy efficiency while making it effortless to lift, handle, and stow in cars, autos, or public transport.”
YD One transforms this reality. Built with precision-engineered geometry and aerospace-grade materials, it delivers the kind of high-performance, ultra-light mobility once only possible through expensive imports — but at a fraction of the cost.

IIT Indore\'s new eco-friendly cement-free concrete cuts costs by 20%, saves water

This new concrete doesn’t just perform better -- it could also bring down construction costs by up to 20% when local materials are used. Plus, it skips water curing altogether, which is a big win in times of water shortage.
It gains over 80 MPa compressive strength in just three days, making it ideal for urgent builds like military bunkers, bridges, disaster relief structures, and railway or highway repairs.
In contrast, regular cement-based concrete usually takes 28 days to reach similar strength levels.
Even better, this concrete can cut CO emissions by up to 80%, addressing one of the construction sector’s biggest climate problems. Cement alone is responsible for about 8% of global CO emissions, releasing around 2.5 billion tonnes of CO every year.

New sickle cell anaemia screening test kit to cost less than Rs 100, to be launched soon: DG-CSIR

“This affordable test kit uses one drop of blood collected from the patient, undergoes the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and results are available in half an hour. The test will identify whether the person is a patient, a carrier or at risk and we are hoping to bring it to the market in the next six months,” the CSIR chief said.
India accounted for 14.5 per cent of the global SCD births in 2023 with over 42,000 newborns affected that year.
“We are also aiming to bring down the treatment cost to Rs 50 lakh. The treatment for one patient is estimated at Rs 28 crore in the United States and focused efforts are underway at our labs on genome editing approaches for correcting the sickle cell mutation for a potential cure.” Dr Kalaiselvi said.

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