India's Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Nitin Gadkari has announced, the government is working on an e-commerce platform to promote products manufactured by Medium and Small Scale Industries.
Gadkari said the portal named "Bharatcraft" would give a platform to these industries to market and sell their products worldwide. He expressed hope that the portal would help Medium and Small Scale Industries leapfrog their export shares from the present 29 per cent to 40 per cent in the next 3-4 years.
"The Bharatcraft portal, which will be on the lines of Alibaba and Amazon, will provide a platform for MSMEs to market and sell their products, and in turn boost the sector," Gadkari said at an event in Mumbai, India's economic capital.
The Minister, who is known for his radical ideas, said such an e-commerce initiative has vast potential to generate revenue worth $139 billion in another 2-3 years and contribute towards India's $5 Trillion economy.
The announcement comes in the wake of e-commerce behemoth Amazon, setting up its most significant campus in the world in the southern city of Hyderabad on Wednesday 21 August.
As trade tensions between India and the US linger, New Delhi revised e-commerce regulations, to mandate that multinationals store data locally. The government argued the changes aim to protect the interests of small traders and the privacy of its citizens.
The Indian economy has been under intense pressure as a result of steps that the Trump administration has taken over the last two years.