Flipkart signs MOU to boost manufacturing and entrepreneurship in India

Through this agreement, Flipkart will provide micro, small and medium entrepreneurs in India infrastructural support in data analytics, marketing and customer acquisition to help them scale their business.

Flipkart shifted to the marketplace model only in 2013 and since then has been signing up merchants with a high focus on quality. Ankit Nagori, VP Marketplace at Fliipkart, says, “We believe the marketplace model is best suited for an  emerging economy like India with a huge population. This model has seen traction and we want to further use this platform to enable and encourage entrepreneurship in the country.” The partnership with FISME and NCDPD will create a powerful affiliation that will enable 50,000 small and medium enterprises and artisans to become self-reliant and scale their business.

The three organizations have come together to create a platform focused on the betterment of Indian manufacturers and artisans. Anil Bharadwaj, Secretary General, FISME, says, “We are delighted to be a part of this kind of a tripartite coordinated effort. This will help MSMEs sell their products directly to buyers across the nation and will create huge employment opportunities even in the ancillary industries thereby reducing the migration of rural population to urban areas.”

Flipkart, with its access to a large customer base in the country, aims to help FISME and NCDPD make optimal use of the available data to guide entrepreneurs and artisans on areas such as deciding on the right selling price, payment automation, proper packaging, transportation and brand building etc. The claim is that the efforts will make it easy for sellers to improve their products and services, thereby attracting more customers.

“The analytics and market intelligence provided by Flipkart will assist NCDPD in improving our product R&D to help the artisans and master craftsmen create better saleable product ranges. This in turn will help them plan their production and expand their business -- revolutionizing manufacturing in India, encouraging entrepreneurship and growing the rural economy,” says R.K. Srivastava, Executive Director, NCDPD.

The focus of this association will be to continue to help entrepreneurs create products in tune with buyer requirements and grow significantly so that they can become manufacturers not only at a local but also at a national level.

What exactly are FISME and NCDPD?

FISME promotes entrepreneurship and improves market access to MSMEs. It is the face of the Indian MSMEs and is regarded as such by the Government of India. FISME is a member of National MSME Board formed under the MSME Act of 2006. FISME is well represented in and consulted by SME policy making set-up of the country and also works in close cooperation with major multilateral and bilateral bodies in India such as UNIDO, ILO, UNCTAD, DFID, GTZ etc.

NCDPD is a member-based organization mainly representing handicraft sector. NCDPD has been set up with an objective to fulfill the gap in the hard goods sector in the areas of Design / Product Development & Technology. The organization works in close cooperation with Development Commissioner (Handicrafts) to undertake design and product development activities on pan India basis for clusters. They also work closely with Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts and its member exporters for forward linkage. International & National designers work to provide complete array of services for customized design / product development services.

With over 18 million registered users and delivering more than 50 lakh shipments per month, Flipkart is the largest e-commerce portal in the country and its recent acquisition of Myntra along with another funding round has strengthened its position as the leader. This partnership is another positive move from Flipkart and looks good for the entire ecosystem. The true value add this move brings will also be visible as the product range expands on Flipkart.