Govt plans to develop Alibaba-like portal for Indian MSMEs: Gadkari

The government plans to develop a portal for creating a market place like Alibaba where all stakeholders from India's MSME sector can find the demand and supply inputs, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said Thursday. Besides, a top official said the government is in talks with the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and KfW Development Bank to see how they can invest more in the country's MSME sector.

MSME Secretary Arun Kumar Panda said the talks have just begun in this regard. Addressing an awards function here, Gadkari said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream of making India a USD 5 trillion economy can only be fulfilled by ensuring the growth of the MSME sector in the county.

He said that in the coming years it will be his endeavour to raise the contribution of MSME sector to the country's GDP to 50 per cent from the present 29 per cent, and ensure that it gave employment to at least 15 crore people against the 11.1 crores at present. Gadkari said there is an urgent need to encourage research and innovation in the sector, collaborate with global entities to bring in the latest technology and best practices and also promote marketing. For this, he has proposed creating a new website where people can post new ideas, suggestions and innovations.

This will help develop a bank of innovation and ideas where all stakeholders can share their suggestions, technologies etc. Gadkari laid emphasis on the need to diversify in new MSME potential sectors especially in the rural and agricultural sectors.