Axis Bank and Dun & Bradstreet launch Business Gaurav SME Awards 2011

India’s one of the leading bank Axis Bank and Dun & Bradstreet, today announced the launch of ‘Business Gaurav SME Awards 2011’ to recognize the contributions of the SME segment towards development of business and economic growth.

The Bharat Gaurav SME Awards will be supported by a sector specific ‘Knowledge Series’ in 10 cities in India. Each Knowledge Series event will address 12 identified sector specific issues in addition to covering best practices in financial management. Chandigarh will host the knowledge series on Pharma & Engineering Goods on September 9, 2011 while Ludhiana on Textile Sector on September 14, 2011

S. Chakrabarti, Deputy Managing Director, Axis Bank said, “We are proud to launch the Business Gaurav SME Awards 2011. Axis Bank has always collaborated with its SMEs clients to provide innovative banking solutions. This initiative will further strengthen our collaboration with the SME segment.”

Nominations for the awards are open up to 7th October 2011. SMEs with a turnover of Rs 150 crores or less can send their nominations to Dun & Bradstreet. Nomination forms can be downloaded from www.axisbank.com/sme or www.dnb.co.in/businessgaurav.

Dun & Bradstreet will accept the nominations for review and analysis. An independent jury will select the final award winners. The award ceremony is scheduled for November 2011 in Mumbai. Awards will be presented in three categories for each of 12 sectors as well as 1 award for an overall winner.

About Axis Bank:

Axis Bank is the third largest private sector bank in India. Axis Bank offers the entire spectrum of services to customer segments covering Large and Mid-Corporates, SME, Agriculture and Retail Businesses.

With 1411 branches (including extension counters) and 6,871 ATMs across the country, as on 30^th June 2011, the network of Axis Bank spreads across 932 cities and towns, enabling the Bank to reach out to a large cross-section of customers with an array of products and services. The Bank also has overseas offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Axis Bank offers SME lending from 32 dedicated SME Centres and has over 15,000 customers. As of 30th June 2011, Axis Bank’s SME loan book stood at Rs 19,834 crores.

The Bank’s website www.axisbank.com offers comprehensive details about its products and services.

About Dun & Bradstreet (D&B):

Dun & Bradstreet (NYSE:DNB), the world's leading source of global business information, knowledge and insight, has been enabling companies to Decide with Confidence® for over 168 years.  D&B's global commercial database contains more than 175 million business records. The database is enhanced by D&B's proprietary DUNSRight® Quality Process, which transforms the enormous amount of data collected daily into decision-ready insight. Through the D&B Worldwide Network -an unrivaled alliance of D&B and leading business information providers around the world customers gain access to the world's largest and highest quality global commercial business information database.

Customers use D&B Risk Management Solutions to mitigate risk, increase cash flow and drive increased profitability, D&B Sales & Marketing Solutions to analyse markets, locate prospects and increase revenue from new and existing customers; D&B Export Marketing Solutions to gain significant insight into overseas markets and increase sales; D&B Learning Solutions to facilitate professional growth and excellence among their executives ; D&B Economic Analysis Group to derive pragmatic and solution-oriented analyses of strategic economic and business developments, thereby aiding informed decision making and D&B's Research and Advisory Services to provide customized research solutions and consulting to its clients  in the areas of Risk Management, Economic, Sector and Financial Research.

D&B featured on FORTUNE Magazine's Most Admired Companies Industry List for four consecutive years (2006 -2009), ranking first in the Financial Data Services category. D&B ranked first in the areas of employee talent, financial soundness, long-term investment, quality of management and use of corporate assets.