Saurabh Gupta | 25 Jul, 2013
In order to make Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector more productive and globally competitive, the Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of MSME, K H Muniyappa Thursday announced the launch of his Government's upcoming project 'Badal', a cloud computing platform for MSMEs.
"Our ministry is working on a project called 'Badal', a cloud computing
platform for our MSMEs. This project will make Indian MSMEs more competitive in
the internet world," Muniyappa said on the sidelines of an event jointly
organised by FICCI and Google India in the national capital.
The Minister said that technology was moving at a rapid pace and India needed
to keep pace to be able compete in the world market. "There are numerous
countries which are far ahead of India in this regard but the country's direct
competition is with China in terms of production and quality. And this project
will help them lot," he added.
"The project will come to reality soon," he added.
However sources said that it will take almost two months to be in practical. He
also said that it would add very nominal cost to MSMEs.
While addressing the event, Additional Secretary & Development
Commissioner, Ministry of MSME, Amarendra Sinha said, "We can look at
internet from two perspectives. One as a slave, where you decide how you want
to make use of it, and the other way is to look at is as a great equalizer,
which removes social and geographical barriers. Hence, internet must be used by
MSMEs to simplify its processes and enrich them."
He said that in his Ministry 60 percent of the schemes were online and by
year-end all schemes will be available.
FICCI and Google India together organized 'India SME Heroes Challenge' and on
the occasion the minister has launched the report on 'Unleashing the Potential:
Internet's Role in the Performance of India's Small and Medium Enterprises
(SMEs)'.
Dr. Ram Tamara, Managing Director, Nathan Economic Consultant Pvt. Ltd., while
presenting the findings of the report stated that SMEs, who use the web, fared
much better than those that did not. On an average, web-enabled SMEs boasted of
revenues 51 percent higher, 49 percent more profit, and customer bases 7
percent broader than their offline counterparts.
The study revealed significant opportunities both for India's booming SME
sector, where fewer than 5 percent of all businesses even maintain a web
presence, and for India's economy: small medium enterprises are critical to the
economic growth in India, where 47 million SMEs employ about 100 million people
and contribute more than 8 percent of India's GDP.
According to the report, only 51 percent of online SMBs use the web to
advertise a mere 27 per cent use it for e-commerce. But with 95 percent of
businesses yet to even establish a website; India is poised for big gains as
more small enterprises come online.