The Hindu Business Line : NMCC bid to empower small, medium units

Project goals
Develop knowledge networks through creation of R&D linkages, capacity building, sharing of best practices
Provide knowledge base on different manufacturing sectors, sub-sectors, resources on clusters, IP information

BOOSTING SMES: Dr V. Krishnamurthy (left), Chairman of the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, with Mr Ravi Venkatesan, Microsoft India Chairman, at the launch of National Manufacturing Portal under Project Vikas in the Capital on Tuesday - Kamal Narang

New Delhi June 19 The National Manufacturing Competitive Council (NMCC) with an aim to stimulate manufacturing competitiveness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across the country has launched a national manufacturing portal.

The portal was jointly developed by NMCC and Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt Ltd as a part of `Project Vikas', which is aimed at making the Indian SME sector competitive and to help establish `Made in India' as a global brand.

The portal, www.nmcc-vikas.in or www.nmcc-vikas.gov.in, is expected to enhance competitiveness of India's manufacturing sector through the use of information technology.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday after launching the portal, Dr V. Krishnamurthy, Chairman, NMCC said, "The portal, the first of its kind in the country, is a major initiative to enhance the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector especially the SMEs through information technology. The portal would enable companies to compete more effectively in today's globalised environment and is expected to improve productivity of most enterprises by almost 50 per cent."

Competitive edge

"Through an ICT-based intervention model, Project Vikas will help empower the SME sector and give it a competitive edge in the global market. The project also aims to develop knowledge networks through the creation of research and development linkages, capacity building with regional training institutes, sharing of best practices and enable linkage with the SME cluster eco-system," Dr Krishnamurthy said, while highlighting the importance of the portal.

The portal also provides knowledge base on different manufacturing sectors and sub-sectors, resources on Indian and international clusters, intellectual property rights (IPR) information to achieve niche competitiveness.

"Market information to improve market access, credit and finance related areas for SMEs including various policies, schemes, Central and State Government Industrial Acts, policies, schemes, incentives etc for the manufacturing sector; and other related useful links, will also be available on the portal," he said.

Clusters

In the first phase, textile cluster in Tirupur, pharma in Hyderabad and auto in Pune were identified for the initiative, while the second phase would cover leather cluster in Agra, auto in Chennai and textile in Ludhiana.

NMCC aims to extend the initiative to 5-10 clusters in the next 12 months and around 25 clusters under the project in the next four-five years. "There are a total of 380 clusters in the country and we would want to cover all of them in a phased manner over a period of time and the platform would be able to support 14 Indian languages to ensure deeper penetration of the project in the country," Mr Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt Ltd, said.

With the manufacturing sector contributing around 65 per cent of the country's total exports and constituting 12-14 per cent to the GDP, Mr Krishnamurthy said the sector has tremendous potential to create jobs and lead to further growth in the economy.

"If the current growth rate of 12-14 per cent in the sector is maintained over the next 10 years, we would be able to corner 25 per cent share of the GDP, as against our target of 32-33 per cent," he added.