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.