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The Wadhwani Foundation (WF) today announced the Sahayata Initiative to help distressed small and medium enterprises (SMEs) affected by the economic crisis and public health workers improve COVID-19 knowledge and skills. The Wadhwani Foundation is a leading non-profit Foundation serving India and other developing countries with the mission of accelerating job creation through large scale initiatives in entrepreneurship, SME growth, and skilling.



Wadhwani Foundation has committed INR 200 Crore and is building an ecosystem of partners, including government ministries and agencies, banks, and consulting firms, to help operationalize this large and complex initiative. The Sahayata Initiative consists of three programs: the Sahayata Business Stability program, the Sahayata COVID-19 Skilling program, and the Sahayata Public Health Innovation program. The Foundation built all three Sahayata programs over the last 90 days. Rapid deployment will begin in August 2020.



Padma Shri Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, Founder and Chairman, Wadhwani Foundation, said, “COVID-19 has created both a health and an economic crisis that is especially harming SMEs and jobs. Without proper credit and consulting support, the short- and long-term damage to the SME sector will be enormous. The Foundation’s large investment in Sahayata supplements the government’s massive stimulus package by providing 10,000 SMEs with consulting services that will help them survive, stabilize, and ultimately grow into successful businesses and help save or create 100,000 jobs. All of the Foundation’s own consultants, existing and new content, and technology will be provided pro bono to SMEs.”



Sahayata Business Stability Program: SMEs are the core of every economy, but the economic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has severely damaged this growth driver of all emerging economies. Larger companies generally have larger, more robust balance sheets, access to capital and management resources, and are more resilient. SMEs are much less resilient and need both capital and expertise to survive now, stabilize in the near term, and position themselves for growth. While the Government of India recently established an extensive, vital credit program for SMEs, these SMEs also need help with strategy and operational best practices to address challenges with customers, broken supply chains, and disrupted processes such as management and employee retention.



The Sahayata Business Stability program will provide up to 10,000 SMEs with transformational business consulting equipping them with the expertise necessary to survive, stabilize, and grow.



Wadhwani Foundation has signed partnerships with SIDBI, Clix Capital, IIFL Finance, Power2SME, and Magma Fincorp to select the SMEs for this program, jointly. Wadhwani Foundation is expanding its internal team dedicated to this program to 100 SME business consultants. Additionally, the Foundation is planning to partner with KPMG, FlexingIt, GroCurv, Strategy Garage, Bada Business, VentureBean Consulting, The Catalyst, Imbibe Consultancy Services, Black Brix Services, KonektUp, CFOBridge, Midas CFO, Dhandabadhao.com, and several curated individual subject matter experts, advisors and mentors, to provide SME consultants to this Sahayata initiative, at pro bono or substantially discounted rates. This combined team of consultants will use the Foundation's comprehensive and growing digital video library of business transformation and best practices content and the Foundation's advanced technology platform for SME engagement. Wadhwani Foundation is also establishing an academy to train SME business consultants in Sahayata-specific best practices, content, and technology.



Starting in August 2020, this Sahayata program will sign up 50 SMEs per month, increasing progressively to 500 SMEs per month. After an initial high-touch engagement model supporting companies with revenue up to INR 250 crores, Wadhwani Foundation will launch the next-generation, AI-powered self-service GENIE platform in mid-2021 to scale the program to additional SMEs.



Arun. M. Kumar, Chairman, and CEO, KPMG in India, said, “We are pleased to put our shoulder to the wheel with Wadhwani Foundation’s Sahayata Initiative to help SMEs that have been severely impacted by COVID-19. We are proud to partner with the Foundation and Mr. Romesh Wadhwani in their visionary intervention to help this section of the industry that accounts for a disproportionate number of jobs and livelihoods.”



Shri Mohammad Mustafa, Chairman and Managing Director, SIDBI, said, “In the extraordinary circumstances of COVID-19, we believe that leading organizations should partner with each other to help MSMEs. As a responsive measure to facilitate revival and thriving of MSMEs, we are glad to know that Wadhwani Foundation, our existing MoU partner on mentoring MSMEs, is launching Sahayata Business Stability program. It shall provide free access to webinars, Do-It-Yourself tools, a curated bench of advisors, and mentors. This shall facilitate the emergence of stronger MSMEs, thus giving a fillip to the national mission of Aatmanirbhar Bharat.”