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Obama signs trillion-dollar bill, averts shutdown
- U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday faced a new congressional gridlock over a payroll tax cut after he signed into law a $1 trillion spending bill, averting a government shutdown.
- The U.S. Senate passed the spending bill and a two-month payroll tax holiday extension on Saturday, punting that problem down the road, but not for long.
- Mr. Obama had put off a decision on the project, which pits environmentalists against
IT tools put to effective use by small businesses
- Be it attracting talent or finding new markets, thousands of small and medium-scale businesses (SMBs) have started using information technology tools, and several IT companies now offer them products and services.
- For instance, Google India has launched ‘India Get Your Business Online.' It is aimed at helping five lakh SMBs go online in three years.
- Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has rolled out iON, an integrated IT solution for SMBs, and Microsoft India has a range of products and applications for this sector.
- Interestingly, several small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector are rapidly converting their static websites into data-base oriented and interactive ones and those in the B-to-C segment are using social networking sites
- SMEs are in two main categories — those in the mid-market segment, and the very small entities. IT use differs between these two. The top 50,000 units use IT for better business processes like cost management. They use it as a growth driver. The second category mainly uses personal computers to automate and manage information. An entrepreneur will need web presence, communication tools, and social networking. Adoption of IT among these units is set to increase.
- Penetration of websites in SMEs is less than 5 per cent. The Federation of Indian Micro and Small and Medium Enterprises is working with Google India to help more units have their websites.
