Flipkart, India’s leading e-commerce marketplace, has partnered with the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, to empower skilled yet underserved sections of society by inducting them into e-commerce.
Under the MoU exchanged between Flipkart and the ministry today, Flipkart will collaborate with State missions under the DAY-NULM to establish the Flipkart Samarth program in 22 states in India to begin with.
Flipkart and the State missions will work with self help groups (SHGs), including local artisans, weavers and crafts producers, and producers of raw and organic food items to provide them market access, training and support. Sellers under the program shall receive time-bound incubation support from Flipkart that extends to a host of benefits such as cataloguing support, account management support and more.
This partnership between Flipkart and the Government will increase business and trade opportunities for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and provide them training and support to grow their business. It will bring small businesses and SHGs under the DAY-NULM umbrella into the fold of e-commerce, enabling them to access a much larger, pan-India market. Through this initiative, Flipkart aims to support and boost underserved sections of society, especially in urban areas, by providing them the tools to attain economic and financial stability.
DAY-NULM is one of the flagship schemes of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs that works towards alleviating urban poverty through strong community institutions, skill training, access to affordable credit for self-employment, support for street vendors and provision of permanent shelters for the urban homeless.
Rajneesh Kumar, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Flipkart Group, said, “Flipkart is delighted to partner with Govt of India’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to empower artisans and SHGs across the country to benefit from e-commerce. This initiative will enable these sellers to overcome geographical and socio- economic constraints by leveraging the Flipkart platform to reach more than 200 million customers across India. With every artisan or MSME we onboard on Flipkart, e-commerce becomes more inclusive for Indians. We would like to express our sincere thanks to the DAY-NULM mission of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for joining hands with us for this initiative.â€
About the Flipkart Group
The Flipkart Group is one of India’s leading digital commerce entities and includes group companies Flipkart, Myntra, Jabong, and PhonePe. Launched in 2007, Flipkart has enabled millions of consumers, sellers, merchants and small businesses to be a part of India’s e-commerce revolution. With a registered customer base of over 200 million, offering over 150 million products across 80+ categories. Our efforts to democratize e-commerce in India, driving access and affordability, delight customers, create lakhs of jobs in the ecosystem and empower generations of entrepreneurs and MSMEs has driven us to innovate on many industry firsts.
Flipkart is known for pioneering services such as Cash on Delivery, No Cost EMI and easy returns – customer-centric innovations that have made online shopping more accessible and affordable for millions of Indians.
Together with Myntra and Jabong, which hold prominent positions in the online fashion market, and PhonePe, India’s fastest growing digital payments platform, the Flipkart Group is steering the transformation of commerce in India through technology.