India-Russia ties to boost SME prospects, says Suresh Prabhu
Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation, addressing a forum of small and medium businesses (SMBs) of India and Russia at an interactive session in Bengaluru, batted for a strategic partnership curating a link between the two economies so that SMEs can benefit from the promotion of more technology and capital transfers, said a government statement.
The minister said that Russia has been a long-standing and time-tested partner of India, and relations with Russia have always been of trust, understanding, and reciprocity. He added that the two nations enjoy a multi-dimensional cooperation extending to all areas of bilateral relationship such as political, security, trade and economy, defence, education, science and technology, culture and people-to-people.
However, SMEs are often under-informed about the schemes that exist, according to the minister. “Therefore, there is a need to curate a digital bridge between the two economies so that SMEs can benefit from it, and to create awareness about Russia in India to promote more technology and capital transfers,” he told the forum.
Prabhu also described the need for sharing best practices to make the alliance as smooth as possible, and create a vigorous market with access to capital and technology for businesses both in India and Russia. “India requires more and improved infrastructure, access to energy, quality goods and services and a modern agriculture sector. Russia is well placed to meet our needs in these areas,” he said.
“The two countries could cooperate in sectors such as energy resources, gold and diamonds, infrastructure development, digital technologies, research and development, pharma, biotechnology and agriculture among others,” he added.
Earlier this week, Prabhu had launched Swayatt, an initiative to promote MSMEs, women and young entrepreneurs through e-transactions on the government e-Marketplace (GeM). The aim was to bring the key stakeholders in the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem into GeM, which is the national procurement portal.