Commerce Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Wednesday launched "Niryat Bandhu @ Your Desktop" an online certificate programme in export import business under the Niryat Bandhu Scheme of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Department of Commerce.

The objective of the Niryat Bandhu Scheme is to reach out to the new and potential exporters and mentor them through orientation programmes, counselling sessions, individual facilitation, etc., for being able to get into international trade and boost exports from India.

More than 18,000 people were given orientation on export import business under the Scheme during the financial year 2014-15. As part of Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20, the Department of Commerce has decided to galvanize Niryat Bandhu Scheme and reposition it to achieve the objectives of "Skill India".

Additional Secretary, R. R. Rashmi, Director General of Foreign Trade, Anup Wadhawan, Additional Director General of Foreign Trade, D.K. Singh and other officers of Department of Commerce and DGFT were present during the launch.

With this objective in view, the DGFT has now collaborated with Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), a national centre of excellence for development of human resource in the field of international trade management, to launch this innovative online programme for exporters and entrepreneurs.

This online programme would enable them to learn the essentials of export import business from the comfort of their homes, through direct live transmission of the lessons on their desktops. The sessions would be followed up by online question answer sessions where they can address their concerns with reputed experts from IIFT. A digital resource library shall also be available to them online. This programme would serve the twin objective of 'Digital India' and 'Skill India'.

The first course with a capacity of 60 participants begins from the 1st week of October, 2015. The course comprises 20 sessions of 2 hours each between 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. It is planned to have a similar programme every month for a batch of 60 participants. On successful completion of the programme the participants would be awarded a certificate jointly by the DGFT and IIFT.

The participation in the programme would also be followed up with on how the participants have utilized the programme by way of steps like having obtained an IEC, entered into an export business, improved their existing business, entered new markets, Online registration for the programme can be done from 10th September, 2015 onwards at http://niryatbandhu.iift.ac.in/home.asp