India plans its own Alibaba

The India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) is currently working on an international B2B e-commerce platform along the lines of the comprehensive Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba.com, which will "serve as a one-stop shop for exporters in other countries to buy every product that is made or value added in India, from needles to cars", according to The Economic Times (ET). It is developed exclusively for Indian manufacturers and exporters to sell their products to vendors abroad.

The project is a first for India and according to an unnamed official quoted by ET, even for the world: "[It] is a very ambitious project which will add brand equity and no other country has such a portal. This has been in the works for quite some time now."

"This is designed keeping Indian players in mind and that any importer should have access to us. Though we are still working on the modalities such as payment mechanism and insurance, the overall sentiment for the project from all departments concerned, is positive," confirms another official.

The IBEF, a trust set up by the commerce department, is in charge of building the B2B portal and will own and maintain its digital property. Unlike Alibaba.com, the proposed Indian portal would also offer sales services in other countries. The IBEF plans to launch the yet unnamed project with at least 100.000 sellers and to scale it up to 500.000 over time. A B2B tender will be floated in about a month.

India's exports have been falling over the last year due to increased international competition and a weak global economy, making it doubtful that the country will achieve its envisioned export target of 300 billion US dollars in fiscal year 2015-16.

Thus, the new portal is to boost India as a sourcing hub and initiatives like 'Make in India' and 'Skill India' while providing Indian exporters access to foreign markets. To replicate Alibaba's timely shipping and to guarantee high quality standards for products and suppliers, vendor verification will have to be a priority though to ensure that "fly-by-night operators" will be weeded out.

Image: IBEF