Laghu Udyog Bharati

Weekly Insights for Entrepreneurs

Govt To Launch MSE TEAM Initiative To Boost MSME E-Commerce Integration

The Ministry of MSME is rolling out the MSE TEAM (Trade Enablement and Marketing) initiative, a sub-scheme under the World Bank-supported RAMP programme.
The initiative seeks to integrate MSEs with the ONDC to help widen their customer base and increase revenue.
Beneficiaries will receive assistance in areas such as onboarding, digital cataloguing, account management, transport and logistics, and packaging, alongside training and capacity-building support.
Under the plan, 5 lakh MSEs are expected to benefit, with half of them being women-owned enterprises. Special outreach activities are being planned in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities to drive participation.

India’s Defence Push: DRDO’s 2025 Tech Transfer Policy Spurs MSME-Led Growth in Defence Manufacturing

In a landmark move to boost private sector participation in defence, the DRDO has unveiled its 2025 Transfer of Technology (ToT) policy. The new framework shifts focus from public sector undertakings to active collaboration with MSMEs and start-ups, aiming to elevate India’s self-reliance and innovation in defence production.
The policy offers significant financial support for MSMEs and start-ups. For Category ‘A’ technologies, ToT fees are waived for Development cum Production Partners (DcPPs), Production Agencies (PAs), and other selected firms.
MSMEs and start-ups in DRDO projects receive feeder technologies at 50% of the estimated ToT fee. Programmes like iDEX have supported nearly 300 innovators.

India Embraces Blockchain for MSME Financing as RBI Gives the Green Light

RBI has officially approved a blockchain-based platform. It is developed by the Indian Banks’ Digital Infrastructure Company (IBDIC) to revolutionize financing for MSMEs. This paves the way for faster, fraud-resistant credit and sets a precedent for blockchain in mainstream Indian finance.
With the new platform, corporate supply chain invoices are converted into digital tokens on a secure, permissioned blockchain.
MSMEs present verified invoices. Banks and lenders see untampered, on-chain proof and can offer credit almost instantly. Blockchain’s shared, tamper-evident ledger nearly eliminates invoice duplication and fake lending risks.
India joins a select (but growing) club of nations integrating blockchain into small business finance.

India approves its first Maxar-like private satellite data project

In the mission, Pixxel, along with fellow startups Dhruva, SatSure and Piersight, will develop a constellation of 12 satellites with “panchromatic, multispectral, hyperspectral, and microwave SAR sensors.”
The constellation project, once completed, will become the first private imaging system in India.
The move mimics an established American model of satellite operation, where firms such as Maxar Technologies sell high-resolution satellite images to any paying customer, for a fee.
Industry stakeholders have consistently flagged the importance of the technology in modern-day industries—such as civic planning, forestry, agriculture, disaster management, maritime exploration and more.

From IIT Bombay labs to defence skies: How ideaForge took flight as India’s drone leader

ideaForge, which designs and manufactures high-performance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and solutions, holds 50% market share in an industry that is expected to touch $1.5-1.9 billion by next year.
After incubation, the co-founders kept taking tech projects from IIT. In 2009, ideaForge launched its first quadcopter drone and in 2010, it made its first sales. Since then, the company has been building drones for defence, internal security, disaster management, agriculture and industrial applications.
While the firm sources certain components from outside India, its drones are designed, developed, and manufactured entirely in India.
From 2 kg to 50 kg, the firm is manufacturing many categories in-house and is now looking to build its additional categories, outside this range, from a 500 kg middle-mile logistics drone to a nano drone under 250 gm.

79th Independence Day: GST reforms to Sudarshan Chakra Mission– 5 top announcements by PM Narendra Modi

PM Modi announced that the Government of India is bringing GST reforms this Diwali.
He announced that the first made-in-India semiconductor chip will be launched in the market by the end of this year. Six semiconductor units are already on the ground, and four new units have been given the green signal.
He announced a scheme worth ₹1 trillion for our country's youth in which young men and women getting their first job in the private sector will receive ₹15,000 from the government.
Sudarshan Chakra Mission -- PM announced plans to expand, strengthen, and modernise this national security shield over the next 10 years.
PM Modi also announced a task force for next-generation reforms.

S&P Global upgrades India’s rating after 18 years to ‘BBB’, cites economic resilience & fiscal consolidation

“The upgrade of India reflects its buoyant economic growth, against the backdrop of an enhanced monetary policy environment that anchors inflationary expectations,” S&P Global said. “Together with the government’s commitment to fiscal consolidation and efforts to improve spending quality, we believe these factors have coalesced to benefit credit metrics.”
“We believe the effect of U.S. tariffs on the Indian economy will be manageable,” S&P added. “India is relatively less reliant on trade and about 60% of its economic growth stems from domestic consumption.”
“Government bond markets are rallying on this news as this would encourage more foreign and FPI inflows into the bond markets,”

Income Tax Bill 2025: Key changes for property owners, taxpayers, investors

Parliament on Tuesday passed a new income tax Bill to replace the six-decade-old Income Tax Act, 1961. The new Bill removes redundant provisions and archaic language, and is likely to come into effect from April 1, 2026.
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “This leaner and more focused law is designed to make it easy to read, understand and implement.”
The new Income-tax Bill, 2025 was first introduced in February, and then sent to a Parliament Select Committee. On August 12, the government introduced a new version, the Income-Tax (No.2) Bill, 2025, incorporating most recommendations of the Committee.
Here are the key features of the new Bill…..

India’s retail inflation eases to eight-year low of 1.55% in July

The moderation in retail inflation extends a six-month streak of sub-4 percent inflation, with the average since April holding below 3 percent.
Food inflation remained in negative territory for the second straight month, with the index recording a deeper deflation of 1.8 percent compared with -1.1 percent in June. The decline was largely led by lower prices of pulses, vegetables, cereals, eggs, sugar, and transport costs. The July food inflation reading is the lowest since January 2019.
At its most recent policy meeting, the Reserve Bank of India cut its full-year inflation forecast to 3.1 percent from 3.7 percent earlier. The central bank now expects inflation to average 2.1 percent in the second quarter, rise to 3.1 percent in the third, and end the fiscal year at 4.4 percent in the fourth quarter.

Centre to update wholesale price index, launch producer-focused gauge in major overhaul of economic indicators

The move aims to make inflation and industrial output measures more representative of today\’s manufacturing sector.
A producer price index typically tracks prices received by services providers or manufacturers, even before their goods reach the wholesale market.
Owners or managers of factories or establishments registered under laws such as the Factories Act, Companies Act, Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, and other statutory bodies can be asked to provide data.
“Our manufacturing sector has evolved significantly in the past decade, and without such an update, key economic indicators risk becoming outdated. This step should help India match international statistical standards,”.

IISc, startup develop magnetic nanobots to treat tooth sensitivity

Researchers at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), in collaboration with Bengaluru-based deep-tech startup Theranautilus, have engineered "CalBots". Guided by an external magnetic field, the bots can then self-assemble into stable, cement-like plugs that recreate the tooth's natural barrier.
The team used a completely new class of bioceramic cement for the nanobots. While bioceramics are common in orthopaedics and dentistry, the formulation was designed specifically for hypersensitivity – to travel deeper and last longer.
The CalBots are made entirely from materials classified as ‘generally recognised as safe' and passed toxicity tests in mice. "This is a compelling demonstration of what nanorobotics can achieve, and how they could significantly impact future healthcare," said Ambarish Ghosh, professor at CeNSE.

DRDO develops minefield marking system for Indian Army to enable faster, semi-automated deployment

The upgraded system is designed for semi-automatic operation with minimal manual intervention. It is capable of marking minefields more efficiently and is suitable for deployment in the plains of Punjab, as well as the semi-desert and desert regions of Rajasthan.
The equipment can continuously place up to 500 pickets in one operation. Depending on soil conditions and spacing, it can cover a perimeter of at least 1.2 kilometres per hour using 15-metre intervals.
The system comprises mechanical, electrical, electronic, and pneumatic sub-systems.
The Research & Development Establishment (Engineers), Pune, a premier DRDO laboratory, has invited Expressions of Interest (EOI) from Indian industries with the technical and financial capability to manufacture and supply the Minefield Marking Equipment Mk-II with the requisite quality standards.

NFR and IIT-Guwahati Replace Plastic Bedroll Bags with Biodegradable Alternatives

The bags, developed by IIT-Guwahati’s in-house research team, are fully compostable and designed to degrade quickly without harming the environment. They are being used to distribute linen to passengers, replacing single-use plastic packaging that typically contributes to railway waste.
The switch to biodegradable materials is expected to significantly reduce landfill waste, lower carbon emissions, and help conserve natural resources. The move is part of a broader push by Indian Railways to embrace environmentally responsible practices.
The NFR has already implemented several other green initiatives including rapid electrification of railway lines, solar power generation, rainwater harvesting, and the installation of bio-toilets.

IIT Indore, ITM France develop UAV safety algorithm:Hybrid collision-avoidance method cuts delays, boosts efficiency in large-scale drone swarm operations worldwide

UAV swarms are increasingly deployed for applications ranging from disaster relief and large-area surveillance to agriculture, environmental monitoring, and military reconnaissance.
Existing approaches to collision avoidance are often effective only in specific scenarios and tend to fail when scaled up to swarms involving hundreds or thousands of drones.
Using a UAV simulator, researchers tracked aerial positions at fixed intervals. They designed a trajectory adjustment mechanism that slightly shifts a UAV’s flight path before a predicted collision, peaks exactly at the collision point, and returns to its original route afterward. When combined with batching, this reduced the number of required batches by nearly 50%, allowing faster and more coordinated swarm deployment.

IIT Hyderabad launches India’s first AI-powered driverless electric buses

Developed by IIT-H’s Technology Innovation Hub on Autonomous Navigation (TiHAN), these buses run without human drivers, offering six- and fourteen-seater variants.
The project is part of a broader plan to develop autonomous mobility solutions tailored to Indian traffic, with future ambitions for deployment at airports, industrial sites, and potentially public roads pending regulatory approval.
Equipped with LiDAR, GPS, and an array of sensors, the AI system has been trained on extensive real-world data collected during an 8,000 km “Safari” across 35 Indian cities-from Hyderabad to Jammu and back-capturing diverse traffic and weather conditions.
This rigorous training enables the buses to handle the complexities of Indian roadways even within a private, controlled environment like IIT’s campus. The buses have achieved Technology Readiness Level 9 (TRL-9), confirming their proven performance under real conditions.

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