MUMBAI, INDIA: India has a strong base of about 10 million small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that play key role in boosting the economy. Globally, businesses across verticals - irrespective of size and shapes have adopted the Internet and increasingly using it as an effective business channel.

But that's not the case with Indian businesses, as hardly 1 million of the total SMEs have their commercial websites. According to Shridhar Luthria, manager – Channel Development, ResellerClub, Directi, more than 89 percent of small businesses in India do not have a website and are losing out business everyday.

ResellerClub, a Directi Group Business, is among the largest private label web solutions provider globally. It provides web solutions including end-to-end automations for domain resellers, web hosting and designing and other web infrastructure services.

Incepted in 2002, today ResellerClub has over 54,500 resellers globally, apart from 2 million plus customers and over 3 million domain names with a reach to more than 240 countries.

"In terms of domain name registrations, according to Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), India ranks 15th globally and most registrations are commercial domains (.COM). But on the SME and even on personal front, there's very low registration here," Luthria says.

"The .COM domain name is highly accepted and still remains dominant across businesses. However, Indian businesses apart from large enterprises, largely lack the Internet knowledge, don't recognize the need of Internet presence with branded websites and emails," he comments.

He also adds that users here are much reluctant to use online payment services too.

Even Kartik Taneja, VeriSign Services' lead India – Channels Naming Services, agrees to Luthria's views. "India has slow adoption of Internet and web solutions. And it follows an assistance model, where beyond the enterprises there's gap in number of domain name registrations and online businesses," Taneja says.

"Most SMEs are reluctant towards the Internet or online presence." He blames it on the wrong notions and myths about Internet as the factors that hinder the penetration of Internet among SMEs.

However, he strongly reckons that Indian SME's have great growth potential and it can be harnessed by assisting them to move on the Internet. He feels that it can be done by educating SMEs with sharing the knowledge and benefits of having websites.

In fact, VeriSign is actively helping SMEs and creating awareness about online business. A few weeks back, it launched an interactive and educational portal – www.bealeaderwith.com for the SMEs and micro businesses.

According to Taneja, the portal offers three easy steps for SMEs right from identifying .COM domain name, its registration and finally launching the website.

In association with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and other organizations, VeriSign is promoting this website and educating SMEs across India.