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Terms & Conditions

The Small Enterprise Business Awards 2021 is a prestigious and comprehensive program that supports and recognizes small businesses across India. The awards will be organized by Aspire Media Pvt Ltd, the publishers of the leading SME publication “Small Enterprise” the monthly magazine and the portal SmallEnterpriseindia.com. The following are the Terms and Conditions for entry into the MSME Award category for the Small Enterprise Business Awards (SEBA) 2021.  By submitting entries to the awards, you assent that you have read and you agree to abide by these Terms and Conditions.

1. Objective of the Awards

The objective of Small Enterprises Business Awards is to recognize small businesses across India and reward excellence in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector.

2. Award Categories:

The 2021 Award Categories are as follows:

1. Best SME – Manufacturing

2. Best SME – Technology

3. Best SME – Services

4. Best SME – Agriculture

5. Best SME – Retail/FMCG

6. Best SME – Healthcare

7. Best SME – Export / Import

8. Best SME – Logistics

9. Best SME – Energy

10. Best SME – Global Presence

11. Best SME – Microfinance / BFSI

12. Best SME – Handicraft

13. Best SME – Rural

14. Best SME – Garments / Textiles

15. Best SME – Education

16. Best SME – Innovative Business

17. Best SME – NRI

18. Best SME – Food & Beverage

19. Best SME – Sustainable Business

20. Best SME – Family Run Business

21. Best SME – Hospitality

22. Best SME – E-commerce

23. Best SME – Health Tech

24. Best SME – Fintech

25. Best SME – Edutech

26. Best SME – Mobility / EV

27. Best SME – Trading / Wholesale

28. Best SME – Franchise

Jury Recognition:

◈ SEBA 2021 SME of the Year

◈ Women Entrepreneur of the Year

◈ Social Entrepreneur of the Year

◈ Young Entrepreneur of the Year

The Award categories may be changed / modified / increased or reduced / cancelled at the discretion of the Awards Management and / or Jury based on the number of entries received in any category, and the quality of the entries. The decision in this regard will be final and non-contestable.

3. Timelines

Proposed timelines for the Awards are as follows:

Nomination entries open: 30 July 2021

Nomination entries close: 31 October 2021

Awards night: 25 November 2021

Efforts will be made to adhere to the defined timelines. However, the defined timelines are subject to change based on unforeseen circumstances

Awards management and its sub-contractors shall not be held accountable / liable for any disruptions / stoppages / interruptions or cancellation of the Awards or its ceremony or any part of its processes or public voting on account of any factors beyond its control

4. Call for entries and participation

The call for entries for the Awards will be announced online through the website and / or by direct communication with potential nominees. The nomination form will be made available on the website

Entries may be completed online on our website

Sending a nomination to the Awards will be construed as an acceptance of the Terms and Conditions and the nomination form accepted by the nominee would signify acceptance of these Terms and Conditions

Businesses can apply in multiple award categories.

Awards Management and / or Jury have the right to re-classify businesses in any award category to build the quality of entries in that award category

For any queries relating to the nomination form, about which category your business fits into, please contact us at enquiry@sebusinessawards.com or call +91-9567668459

5. Eligibility Criteria for participation in the Awards

The awards are open to all small businesses in India within all industries

Nominees cannot be employees of Aspire Media Pvt. Ltd or its associated Institutions and Companies, Jury Members, Sponsors and persons closely associated with Sponsors

Nominees understand and agree that mere participation in the Awards does not entitle nominees to win the award

Best SME - NRI nominees should be NRI who operates a business entity registered in India or invested in any MSMEs registered in India and should be a partner/board member in the invested MSME.

6. Completeness of entries / Disqualification

Nomination form must be complete to be eligible

Nominations have to be received in the permitted medium: Web-Portal

Right to permit participation is reserved with the Awards Management

Awards Management will not be responsible for nomination forms that are lost during transit / received late / damaged. Receipt of entries after the last date for receiving nominations may be permitted only at the discretion of Awards Management

The nomination form once submitted will be considered accurate and final

The nomination form needs to be complete in all respects; else it may be disqualified from participation. If at any time, any information provided by any business is found to be incorrect in any manner, then that entry will be disqualified from the Awards

Disqualification of entries is at the sole discretion of the Jury, on a case by case basis

Awards Management has the right to ask for documentary proof of information provided or audit the information provided in the nomination forms or supplementary documents. If such a request is made and the nominee does not share the requested information within the stipulated timelines, the nominee could be disqualified

If at any time, including after the conclusion of the award ceremony, any information provided by the nominee, is found to be incorrect in any manner, then the nominee will be liable to be disqualified and / or return the Award

Determination of whether information provided is accurate rests with the Jury and Awards Management

7. Preliminary short-listing of businesses

The following process will be performed by a team designated by Aspire Media Pvt. Ltd and supervised by senior Aspire Consulting team prior to deliberation by Jury

A certificate will be obtained from the designated person who manages the nomination forms received from the online portal indicating the total number of forms received and sent to the Awards Management. Prints of all the forms will be serially numbered by authorized Aspire Media personnel

Awards Management team will designate a team of segment experts with direct domain experience for the purpose for preliminary screening and will circulate criteria for such screening

Nomination forms will be classified by category and unique nominations will be determined

Initial perusal of nomination forms will be made to identify forms to be disqualified based on the disqualification criteria and separated from eligible forms

Awards Management team will determine and tabulate statistics of total forms received and unique nominations for each category, eligible and ineligible applications etc.

The number of finalists (short-listed businesses) will depend on the quality and quantity of entrants for each category. All short-listed businesses shall be collated and presented to the Jury for selection of winners

Short-listed businesses will be informed of their selection through e-mail

8. Selection of Winners

The objective of this stage is to announce the winners of each category (based on the preliminary short-listing) for the 2021 Small Enterprises Business Awards

The Jury are representatives from a variety of industries who have relevant experience and / or an understanding of the operations of Startups and SMEs. A meeting of all Jury members will be convened

The Jury will deliberate each of the businesses under the categories on the basis of their personal dossiers and pre-defined evaluation criteria. All businesses will be given a unique score and the top ranking business in each category will be declared the winner

Jury scores or ranking will be tabulated by independent evaluators to determine one (or more) Final Winner(s) in each award category

Jury’s decision will be final and binding on all nominees

9. Disclaimers and release from liability

You waive your right, either individually and/or severally, to file in person and/or through any family member and/or third party any applications, criminal and/or civil proceedings in any courts or forum under any jurisdiction against Aspire Media, its agents, vendors and process validators to claim any damages or relief or otherwise. Aspire Media is not responsible for any loss or damage that you may suffer while participating in the Awards

You understand and agree that Aspire Media shall carry out the Awards on an 'as-is,' 'with all faults' and 'as available' basis. No representations, warranties or guarantees whatsoever are made by Aspire Media any of its vendors including the process validators as to the accuracy, adequacy, reliability, completeness, suitability or applicability of the information to a particular situation or that the Awards or Awards Process will be uninterrupted or error – free or that any errors will be corrected

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Aspire Media, its trustees, officers, directors, employees, agents and vendors disclaim all warranties, express or implied, in connection with the awards and the process of nomination and selection. You should use your best judgment and exercise caution where appropriate

You hereby agree and undertake not to hold Aspire Media and/or or any of its affiliates, their respective directors, officers, employees, agents, vendors, process validators responsible for or liable for, any actions, claims, demands, losses, damages, costs, charges and expenses that you may/might have suffered, sustained or incurred, or claims to suffer, sustain or incur, by way of and /or on account of applying for or participation in the Awards

10. Cancellations, Withdrawal & Change of Venue

You agree that, notwithstanding cancellation clause, we will have no liability under this Agreement, in any way whatsoever and howsoever (whether in contract, tort, or otherwise) arising out of or in connection with respect of any cancellation or postponement of the Awards Ceremony or the moving of the Awards Ceremony to a new Venue, including but not limited to travel and accommodation costs.

The SEBA 2021 will be an online awards event. If the situation permits, we will consider an Hybrid event and notify the nominee accordingly.

We reserve the right to cancel, postpone or move the Awards Ceremony to another Venue or date to change any other aspect of the Awards Ceremony at our discretion for any reason whatsoever. However, we will notify you promptly if the change relates to a change of Venue or date material change in timing. For the avoidance of doubt, such a change shall not entitle you to terminate this Agreement.

We reserve the right to change the Awards Ceremony presenter or any other performers and do not guarantee the attendance of any particular guest.

Any discounts or offers advertised for a particular event (such as “Early Bird” offers) may be time limited and/or subject to availability.

Where we cancel the Awards Ceremony we will refund any Attendance Fees paid, and we will use reasonable endeavours to notify you of such cancellation.

If you wish to withdraw your entry, you must email us at the address set out on the Awards Page. Where you withdraw your entry more than 14 days after booking, or on or after the closing date for entry (whichever is earlier) there will be no refund.

By nominating, one person can attend the function (either the Nominee or the person approved by the Nominee with required authorization from the nominee).

If you wish to cancel your attendance at the Awards Ceremony you must email us at the address set out on the Awards Page as soon as possible.

If you cancel a nomination booking or withdraw your Entry and there are outstanding payments you may be liable for payment of the full Attendance Fee or Entry Fee, as appropriate, depending on the date and time of the cancellation.

If you (or if any of the Attendees you booked) cannot attend the Awards Ceremony we may allow a substitute Attendee at our discretion, and provided the request is made no later than 72 hours prior to the Awards Ceremony. Any such request must be made by email to the address set out on the Awards Page and should include the name of the Attendee who will not be attending and the full name of the substitute, including their job title and contact details. If the substitute delegate has differing requirements (e.g. dietary) from the original, we may not be able to accommodate these if the request is received later than this. We may reject any unsuitable delegate at our absolute discretion. The substitute Attendee must be from the same organization as the original Attendee who could not attend. This will be permitted only if the awards ceremony is held as an Hybrid event.

11. Fees & Payment

All sums payable by you under this Agreement are subject to any applicable tax, levy or similar governmental charge, including GST which we shall add at the applicable rate.

Payment of any bank transfer charges are your responsibility.

The following process will be performed by a team designated by Aspire Media Pvt. Ltd and supervised by senior Aspire Media staff prior to deliberation by Jury

All sums due under this Agreement shall be paid in full without any set-off, counterclaim, deduction or withholding (other than any deduction or withholding of tax as required by law).

If you fail to make payment of any sums due (“Debt”):

If you breach the above, we may terminate this Agreement immediately by giving you written notice.

We reserve the right to cancel (a) your Entry, and/or (b) the registration of Attendees prior to the Awards Ceremony. If we do not exercise our rights of cancellation prior to the Awards Ceremony, Attendees whose Attendance Fee has not been paid by the date upon which the Awards Ceremony takes place shall be required to pay on-site in order to gain entry;

12. Term & Terminations

We shall be entitled to terminate this Agreement immediately by written notice whenever you breach any provision hereof which expressly entitles us to terminate the Agreement.

This Agreement shall commence on the Start Date and shall continue, unless the Awards Ceremony or your attendance at such, is cancelled, until the date upon which the Awards Ceremony ends (“Term”) when it shall terminate automatically without notice.

We may terminate this Agreement at any time by giving you 15 days’ written notice.

13. Expiry & Termination Consequences

Expiry or termination shall not prejudice any other rights or remedies you or us may be entitled to, nor will it affect the accrued rights and liabilities of either of us, nor the coming into or continuance in force, of any provision of this Agreement which is intended (explicitly or implicitly) to come into or continue in force, on or after such expiry or termination.

Upon expiry or termination of this Agreement:

each party shall promptly return to the other any property of the other within its possession or control.

you shall pay any Fees that have been invoiced up to (and including) the expiry or termination date but not paid for; and

14. Liability

You shall not exclude or limit your liability under any indemnities given by you under this Agreement.

Neither you nor us shall exclude or limit our liability for (a) death or personal injury caused by negligence, (b) fraud and/or fraudulent misrepresentation.

You shall fully and effectively indemnify and hold harmless us and any partners and Sponsors against all losses, actions, costs (including legal fees and disbursements on a solicitor/client basis), claims, demands, fines, damages and liabilities, of whatever nature, incurred or suffered by or made against us, whether or not foreseeable, arising directly or indirectly, wholly or in part, out of or in connection with:

Any breach of this Agreement by you; and

Subject to the clauses above, our maximum aggregate liability to you under this Agreement (whether arising in contract, tort, negligence, statutory duty or otherwise) shall not exceed the Fees you paid to us.

any acts or omissions of yourself, your employees, agents, contractors, visitors, Attendees and/or guests at the Venue arising out of or in connection with the online Awards Ceremony and/or the Venue incase the event goes hybrid.

We shall not (whether in contract, tort, negligence, statutory duty or otherwise) be liable to you under this Agreement for consequential, indirect or special damages (including indirect loss of profit and indirect loss of revenue).

15. General

Nominators and Nominees agree that they shall hold harmless the Awards management, its employees, officers, contractors or other persons and shall defend them against any loss, claim, demands, costs, damages, judgments, expenses or liability arising out of or in connection with any or all claims whether or not groundless, that may be brought against the awards management by any third party in connection with participation in or winning the award

Additions, deletions and / or modifications to these Terms and Conditions are at the discretion of the awards management and the awards management may make such additions / deletions and / or modifications, at any time

Aspire Media and its contractors cannot be held responsible for matters out of its control and for force majeure reasons

Awards management cannot and shall not be accountable / liable for any disruptions / stoppages / interruptions or cancellation of the awards

Aspire Media, Knowledge Partners, Process Validators, Partners and Sponsors will not be liable for any claims / disputes made by the nominee in relation to the awards

Nominees and winners permit free of cost the use of their name and factual information about their application and entry(s) in the public media (for the build-up to the awards, during the awards ceremony, etc.) and do not have any right to any revenues earned through intellectual property rights generated by the Awards, if any

Nominations shall not contain any content that is defamatory, abusive and invasive of another's privacy or that infringes upon another person's copyrights or any other intellectual property rights or that is in any way objectionable

Awards management reserves the right to withdraw or amend the terms of the Awards at any time, with retrospective effect, and does not take the responsibility for any loss or damage that any person / organization / applicant / nominee may suffer as a result of the awards being withdrawn or its terms amended

Notices. All notices (including any invoices) under this Agreement shall be in writing and shall be sent to your email as a soft copy or.  Any notice may be delivered by email, by a reputable courier service, or by post.  The notice shall be deemed to have been given if sent by email within 12 hours of delivery to the sender’s ISP provided within that time no notice of delivery failure has been received, if sent by courier on delivery and if sent by post 3-7 Business Days after the notice was posted.

Disputes. If any dispute arises between us out of or in connection with this Agreement, our respective representatives shall meet within 5 Business Days of receipt of a written notice of such dispute, in an effort to resolve the dispute. If the dispute is not resolved within 5 Business Days of that meeting, the dispute shall be referred to our respective senior management (or their nominees) who shall meet within 5 Business Days of the referral to attempt to resolve the dispute. If, despite following the process set out above, the dispute is not resolved, either of us may refer the matter to the courts. This clause shall not restrict either you or us from initiating any proceedings in respect of a matter where either party has reasonable cause to do so to avoid damage to its business or to protect or preserve any right of action it may have, or from applying for or obtaining emergency or interlocutory relief.

Force Majeure. We shall not be liable to you for any delay or failure to perform hereunder due to a natural disaster, pandemic, actions or decrees of governmental bodies, any curtailment to or cancellation of public transport, strikes or walkouts, communicable disease, epidemic, acts or threats of terrorism or civil unrest, or communications line failure which (a) hinders, delays or prevents us in performing any of our obligations, (b) is beyond our control of without our fault or negligence, and (c) by the exercise of reasonable diligence we are unable to prevent or provide against (“Force Majeure Event”).  In such circumstances, we shall be entitled to a reasonable extension of the time for performing such obligations. If the period of delay or non-performance continues for 30 or more calendar days, we may terminate this Agreement by giving you 5 Business Days written notice. In such circumstances reserve the right not to refund your registration fees and advise that insurance should be taken to cover such eventualities. A Force Majeure Event shall not entitle you to delay payment of any sums under this Agreement. You are responsible for making your own way to the venue for the event (if the event goes hybrid), and you shall remain liable for all payments under this agreement irrespective of any failure of transport or other reason why you are unable to attend the Awards ceremony.

Publicity. We expressly agree that we and/or our Partners and Sponsors shall be entitled to refer to you as an Attendee of our Awards Ceremony in sales and marketing literature (including websites) and reproduce your logo and/or trade mark for that sole purpose.

Video footage & Photography: During the Awards Ceremony, we may shoot video footage and take photographs of the Awards Ceremony which may include video footage and photographs of you and/or your booked Attendees.  We will make use of such footage and photographs in accordance with our Privacy Notice.

Third party Rights. Unless expressly stated, no provision of this Agreement is enforceable by, or intended to benefit, any person who is not a party to this Agreement.

Assignment and sub-contracting. This Agreement is personal to you. You shall not assign, delegate, sub-contract, transfer, charge or otherwise dispose of all or any of your rights and responsibilities under this Agreement without our prior written consent. Such consent shall not relieve you from any liability or obligation under this Agreement and you shall be responsible for the acts, omissions, defaults and/or negligence of your sub-contractors as fully as if they were your own. We may assign, delegate, sub-contract, transfer, charge or otherwise dispose of all or any of our rights and responsibilities under this Agreement at any time without your prior written consent.

Amendments and changes. No purported alteration or variation of this Agreement shall be effective unless it is in writing, refers specifically to this Agreement and is signed by an authorised representative of each of the parties to this Agreement.

Severability. If any provision of this Agreement is held by a court to be unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed to be amended to the extent necessary, and in a manner consistent with the intentions of the parties, to make it and the Agreement fully enforceable.   The unenforceability of any provision of this Agreement shall not affect the remaining provisions.

No Waiver. A delay in exercising, or failure to exercise, any right or remedy in connection with this Agreement shall not operate as a waiver of that right or remedy.  The waiver of a right to require compliance with any provision of this Agreement in any instance shall not operate as a waiver of any further exercise or enforcement of that right. The waiver of any breach shall not operate as a waiver of any subsequent breach.  No waiver in connection with this Agreement shall, in any event, be effective unless it is in writing and refers expressly to this clause.

Further assurance. Each party shall do and execute, or arrange for the doing and executing of, any act and/or document reasonably requested of it by any other party to implement and give full effect to the terms of this Agreement.

Remedies cumulative. The remedies under this Agreement are cumulative and no remedy is exclusive of any other remedy except as expressly stated.

Counterparts. This Agreement may be entered into in any number of counterparts and by the parties on separate counterparts, all of which taken together shall constitute one and the same instrument. Where the parties agree to sign this Agreement by electronic signature (whatever form the electronic signature takes), then this method of signature is as conclusive of the parties’ intention to be bound by this Agreement as if signed by each party’s manuscript signature.

Status of parties. Nothing in this Agreement shall create, or be deemed to create, a partnership or joint venture or relationship of employer and employee or principal and agent between the parties.

Entire Agreement. This Agreement sets out the entire understanding of the parties in relation to its subject matter and supersedes any prior understanding or agreement between the parties whether oral or written. Nothing in this Agreement shall, however, limit or exclude any liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.

Governing Law and Jurisdiction. This Agreement and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with it whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty or otherwise shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of India, and shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the High Court of Karnataka, Bengaluru, to which the parties irrevocably submit.

16. Definitions

Particulars

Definition

Nominee

Any business who submits the nomination form to be considered for the purpose of the Awards

Awards

Small Enterprises Business Awards 2021

Awards Management

Aspire Media Pvt Ltd

Rules

Group of esteemed individuals and subject matter experts selected by Aspire Media to evaluate and determine winners in each category

Final Jury

These Terms and Conditions (SME Nomination) governing the SEBA 2021 Awards, may be amended from time to time

17. SEBA 2021 Disclaimer

The information contained in this website is for SEBA 2021 nomination purposes only. While we endeavor to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.

In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this website.

Through this website you are able to link to other websites which are not under the control of Aspire Media Pvt Ltd. We have no control over the nature, content and availability of those sites. The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them. Every effort is made to keep the website up and running smoothly. However, Aspire Media Pvt Ltd takes no responsibility for, and will not be liable for, the website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control.