Notwithstanding the fact that SMEs play an important role in the country's economic development, they are still unable to upgrade their entrepreneurial skills due to lack of relevant training programs to impart knowledge and skills.

There is an urgent need to identify the training needs of SMEs by evolving effective training strategies and methodologies for different target groups and locations. Inducing and developing young qualified entrepreneurs to create opportunities and motivating them for self-employment by exposing them to training and development models of entrepreneurship and management is the need of the hour.

I see a huge gap between the needs of an entrepreneur and training programs to promote and support entrepreneurship. The fact that the PM's Task Force on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in its January 2010 report also advocated for "at least a doubling of the existing training schemes under the SDI and MSME Ministry" goes to show that the needs of the sector for skill development currently remain unfulfilled to a large extent. In many cases SME players though eager to attend particular training program are unable to participate because these training programs are held in venues far away from their cities of operations.

To do away with such difficulties and to ensure that SMEs can attend training sessions within the comfort of their cities without having to venture out of their respective cities, we have come up with an innovative way - online training programs using latest technologies like VSAT conferencing in partnership with Hughes Communications India Ltd, a premier networking services company in the country.

A priority of Tradeindia's interactive online training programs is to facilitate and encourage interaction of SMEs with experts from various fields. Our online training programs using latest VSAT technology, will give a near classroom experience, wherein participants will be able to ask questions in real time using the technology and get answers from experts instantly.

Our highly interactive online training programs will comprise topics like Export-import Management, Effective Marketing Strategy, Personality & Communication Skill Development, GST (Goods & Service Tax), etc. These online training programs will provide a highly interactive platform for SMEs across domains to get together, interact with our experts and also to inspire each other.

Having said that, we would like you to participate in a survey to help us improve the experience and to help us further enhance the alignment of our online training initiative with your needs. So go ahead, take the survey by clicking the button: