India’s leading e-commerce marketplace Flipkart has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Government of Odisha’s Mission Shakti Department to aid self-help groups (SHGs), artisans, and weavers in the state achieve sustained growth through pan-India market access and improve their income stability. This initiative, which is a part of Flipkart’s Samarth programme, aims to help women-based SHGs leverage the digital medium for better business opportunities.
Under the Samarth platform, the platform will help SHGs with onboarding of products besides cataloguing of their products, imparting orientation, training on product packaging, logistics management, payment gateway/integration management, and returns and exchange management etc, for greater ease of doing business in the state. Furthermore, the producer SHGs, who are a part of the Samarth programme will receive time-bound incubation support and several other benefits from Flipkart as they grow their businesses through the company’s ecommerce platform.
The partnership is aligned with the shared goal of the government of Odisha and Flipkart to foster employment and entrepreneurship amongst the self-help groups to enable them to become self-reliant and further bolster the economy of the state, Flipkart said.
The MoU was signed and exchanged recently at the Make in Odisha conclave by the officials from Mission Shakti Dept, Government of Odisha, and the Flipkart group.
“E-commerce is undoubtedly a new way to a better tomorrow. The e-commerce Industry is an ideal platform for providing opportunities and encouragement to women entrepreneurs who aspire to pursue entrepreneurship,” said Sujata R Karthikeyan, Commissioner, Mission Shakti Dept, Government of Odisha.
“We are proud and honoured to be a part of India’s digital-led growth story. It is our constant endeavour to encourage local businesses, help them leverage the e-commerce platform and explore business growth opportunities. Through this partnership with the Government of Odisha, we will continue to support self-help groups, artisans, and weavers in the state through the Samarth initiative in addition to getting MSMEs pan-India market access using our platform. Together, we will work towards creating a wide range of business and employment opportunities that will support many livelihoods and boost the local economy,” said Rajneesh Kumar, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Flipkart Group.
