In talks with SBI to jointly run e-commerce portal for MSMEs: Nitin Gadkari

New Delhi: The government is in talks with the country's largest public sector lender State Bank of India (SBI) to jointly run an e-commerce portal for marketing of products manufactured by micro,small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the country.

MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said that he is to meet SBI Chairman next month to discuss whether the bank can jointly run an e-commerce portal called Bharat Craft, meant for taking Indian MSMEs to the global platform.

“For the first time, after our govt came to power, we are readying a portal called Bharat Craft,” Gadkari said during the question hour in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

“I am meeting the chairman of State Bank (of India), we are trying that this portal is run by State Bank and the government jointly,” Gadkari added.

He said that China was able to progress because of e-commerce portal Alibaba, referring to India’s MSMEs as the growth engine for the country.

Gadkari added that the government is promoting village and cottage industries, and skill development in rural areas, which will lead to reverse migration from cities.

“The increasing migration towards cities will be stopped, and not only that, people who have come to cities, will go back to their villages. That is the kind of policies we are working on,” Gadkari added.

Gadkari said that the government’s policies are focussed on import-substitue and export-oriented products. “We recently levied a 30% duty on bamboo products that were being imported to China,” Gadkari said.

This move to slap duties on import of agarbattis (incense-sticks) from China to help spur manufacturing of bamboo-related products locally, and save the government Rs 4,000 crore worth of imports, Gadkari said.