SME CEOs Knowledge Series reaches Nashik

Nashik : ICICI Bank, in association with CyberMedia, Asia's largest
specialty media house, conducted the innovative nationwide SME CEOs Knowledge
Series program in Nashik. They were addressing the Auto & Ancillary cluster
and the event got an overwhelming response with over 150 SMEs attending the
sessions.

The event started with the Finance Clinic where entrepreneurs were offered
customized expert advice on how to raise capital for business depending on the
stage of business and the optimal level of capital mix their business needs,
through a discussion on a wide array of topics like-Debt Financing, Private
Equity, IPO, M&A, Forex Advice and other risk management products. This was
followed by a one-on-one mentoring session with the experts from marketing and
branding from IIM Kolkata, Taxation from Deloitte, HR, Finance from ICICI Bank
and ERP from SAP, where each entrepreneur was given enough time to interact with
the mentors. The program concluded with a panel discussion, where the panel in
addition to the experts also included a successful entrepreneur like Rajendra
Bagwe, CMD, Reliable Group of Industries and Kiran Rakhe, GM SCM-Head of
Procurement and Logistics, Nashik Plant, Mahindra & Mahindra to share their
experiences and knowledge with the aspiring SMEs.

Speaking on the occasion, Vijay Chandok, Head-SME Business, Senior GM,
ICICI Bank said, "Nashik has generous availability of talent and is rapidly
emerging as an important economic zone in Maharashtra. ICICI Bank is committed
to development of SMEs across the country. SME CEO Knowledge Series is yet
another initiative towards ICICI Bank's desire to create a supporting ecosystem
for SMEs in general. In this evolving economic scenario, the SME CEO Knowledge
series will provide expertise to issues of finance, strategic marketing,
taxation etc. thereby helping the SMEs to handle their current concerns and
improve their businesses towards a more secure future."

Commenting on the occasion, Pradeep Gupta, CMD, Cyber Media Group said, "Auto
component and ancillary sector is one of the major sunrise sectors of Indian
economy. Moreover, the automotive components industry is perceived as a
lucrative sector with tremendous potential for foreign direct investments.
Nashik already has attracted ample foreign investment and has the potential for
more. The SME CEO Knowledge Series in Nashik is an effort to share global
knowledge and expertise with SME entrepreneurs of Auto component industry of
Nashik to enable them to grow to their full potential."

The Knowledge Series will spread over 26 cities across India. It is an effort
towards promoting an entrepreneurial culture in the country and is a sincere
effort to provide a platform wherein problems faced by the SMEs will be
analyzed, discussed and workable solutions will be offered.

ICICI Bank has initiated several programs like the SME Dialogue, Emerging
India Awards and SME Toolkit to help SMEs interact and transact among themselves
as also with large corporations, thereby providing a complete ecosystem to the
SMEs to scale up to the next level of growth.