Manufacturing gets an e-boost

The country's first national manufacturing portal - www.nmcc-vikas.in -
aiming to link manufacturing clusters, provide information on them and
increase the sector's productivity, was launched today. It will provide a
common platform for manufacturing units, customers, financial institutes
and the government to interact with one another.

Launching the portal, V Krishnamurthy, chairman of the National
Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC), said one way to improve the
competitiveness of manufacturing, which registered 15% growth in April this year, is to use more information technology resources.

The portal has been developed by Microsoft Corporation India as part of the NMCC's Project Vikas which aims at connecting small and mid-size enterprise clusters, and increase their competitiveness by using information
technology.

The website currently links three clusters - textiles in Tirupur, pharmaceuticals in Ahmedabad and automotive components in Pune. Its sections include one on business facilitation, a database of the country's
industrial clusters and government policies on the sector.