Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: Walmart and Flipkart on Wednesday announced a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Tamil Nadu’s Department of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), to establish “long-term cooperation for providing capacity-building support to MSMEs” in the state. Walmart’s supplier development programme called Walmart Vriddhi offers entrepreneurs and small businesses free-of-cost training and the opportunity to join online, offline and export channels, and reach pan-India and global marketplaces as part of the supply chains of Walmart, Flipkart, and other companies. Walmart said the programme also organises training seminars and workshops to further enable the growth and development of SMEs in the state.
“Tamil Nadu is home to one of the largest number of MSMEs in the country that are renowned all over the world for their product quality and craftsmanship. Our MSMEs are the backbone of our economy, and their growth is key to helping us achieve our vision of making Tamil Nadu a $1 trillion economy by 2030. We welcome the MoU with Walmart, Flipkart and Swasti, which shall further strengthen our MSME ecosystem,” said M.K. Stalin, Honorable Chief Minister, Government of Tamil Nadu in a statement from Walmart.
Launched in 2019, the Walmart Vriddhi programme has aimed at training 50,000 MSMEs across India for no cost with the skills necessary to succeed as suppliers to Walmart, Flipkart, and other global marketplace platforms even as Walmart looks to triple its annual exports from India to $10 billion by 2027. Walmart said “thousands of entrepreneurs” are already working through the multi-level training programme, and as a result, many are already selling on the Flipkart marketplace.
“Flipkart has made significant supply chain and infrastructure investments in the state of Tamil Nadu. Furthering our commitment to the state, we have recently launched a dedicated grocery fulfillment center in Coimbatore that shall generate significant employment opportunities for the youth of the state,” said Jagjeet Harode, Senior Director & Head – Marketplace, Flipkart. Flipkart had earlier signed similar partnerships with governments and public departments of Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Maharashtra, Odisha, and more to enable local MSMEs, artisans, and weavers to sell on its marketplace.
Flipkart, on Tuesday, had announced its flagship annual sales event The Big Billion Days from October 7 to 12, 2021 to offer products and items from more than 1 lakh kiranas and overall more than 3,75,000 sellers from across India. Moreover, lakhs of sellers, artisans, weavers, and handicraft makers from Flipkart Samarth will also launch products, the company had said.
Reference: https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/sme/msme-eodb-walmart-partners-with-tamil-nadu-govt-to-help-local-msmes-become-its-suppliers-under-vriddhi-programme/2335713/
