Indian Business Portal Launched To Encourage Start-ups, Small Businesses, Artisans and Farmers,

Anupriya Patel, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry recently launched the ‘Indian Business Portal’ for digitizing exports, supporting Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), and encouraging greater exports. This portal is said to be an international trade hub for Indian exporters and foreign buyers. Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) in partnership with GlobalLinker, has designed and developed the “Indian Business Portal. '' This is a Business-to-Business (B2B) digital marketplace to empower Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) exporters, Artisans, and farmers to identify new markets for their products and grow their sales globally.

Launching the portal Anupriya Patel said, “Indian Business Portal addresses a number of elements which are part of the vision of the Honourable Prime Minister and a commitment of this government like digitizing exporters, supporting MSME, and encouraging greater exports of products Made in India”.

The Minister also mentioned that during the pandemic online platforms such as e-commerce have shown immense potential in supporting millions of businesses to sustain them.

Patel further mentioned that this initiative has come at a very appropriate time as Indian exports are witnessing robust growth right now. India’s overall exports (i.e. Services and Merchandise) touched USD 676.2 Billion in the financial year 2021-2022 as both Services and Merchandise hit record high exports. India’s overall exports were USD 526.6 Billion and USD 497.9 Billion in 2019-20 and 2020-21 respectively.

She also pointed out that India’s Merchandise exports had crossed the USD 400 Billion milestone in Financial Year 2021-2022 and stood at USD 421.8 Billion, which is an exceptional increase of 44.6 percent and 34.6 percent over 2020-21 and 2019-20 respectively.

Praising the initiative of FIEO, Patel stated that the Indian Business Portal would be a big encouragement to Indian Start-ups, SMEs, Artisans and Farmers, and Service providers to take their first step toward the exports. She expressed hope that more exporters will engage on the Indian Business Portal and would provide their feedback to FIEO. Patel also mentioned that this is the most opportune time for the young entrepreneurs to get into business and exports.

What is an Indian Business Portal?

Indian Business Portal is one of its kind marketplaces that is exclusive for exporters registered in India, and is custom-built to support exporters with a range of bespoke features and relevant partners joined to build this ecosystem.

Santosh Kumar Sarangi, Director General of Foreign Trade, Govt. of India said that tech-enabled governance would play an important role in India’s growth and competitiveness. The government is focused on paperless, automated processing systems, simple procedures for trade players, online data exchange between departments, digital payments, and acknowledgements. Progress in technology will help develop the economy and strengthen Indian firms in the competitive global market.

In his address, Dr. A Sakthivel, President FIEO said that FIEO has been championing the cause of Indian exporters and in a digital era. FIEO could do much more for the exporters and help boost India’s export opportunities through a digital platform solution. Our SMEs are blessed with vast skills, unique product portfolios, and diversity.

Strategic Objectives of Indian Business Portal

• Digitizing Indian Exporters and helping them become discoverable online.
• Promoting exports from all Indian States
• Showcasing India’s strength in wide range of Products and Services
• Encouraging virtual meetings between buyers and sellers
• Providing a trusted network of Indian Exporters to Foreign Buyers
• The Portal possesses a facility for overseas consumers to buy from artisans and exporters who offer smaller quantities of their products. Alongside, the ability to create buyer and seller meetings has been provided.

Dr. Ajay Sahai, Director General, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), FIEO stated that FIEO’s vision is to focus on innovation to provide new and value-added services to exporters.  He said, “Over a period of time, we will seek to build trade corridors with a number of countries for small businesses to trade efficiently through this partnership. The platform will facilitate the enhancement of India’s trade linkages for the International markets”.  The portal has a diverse range of products like Consumer and Lifestyle Products, Industrial Products, Business Services and Geographical Indication (GI) products. This portal holds special value for artisans and farmers’ products dealing in Indian GI and handicraft products. India has about 370 GI-certified products across various categories, he added.

Sameer Vakil, Co-founder, and CEO, GlobalLinker said, “FIEO is helping businesses navigate international market opportunities through its wide range of progressive initiatives.  He said  that FIEO’s domain expertise, combined with its partnership with GlobalLinker has led to the creation of the Indian Business Portal, where businesses ranging from artisans to women entrepreneurs and from farmers producing GI products to leading star export houses can create digital catalogues for the world to discover.