Virtual Clusters, an initiative of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, was launched by the Minister of MSME, Shri K. H. Muniyappa, during the presentation Ceremony of National Awards to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in New Delhi, on Saturday. Conceived as supplementing Physical Clusters, Virtual Clusters is a dedicated web-portal which will enable small businesses located anywhere in the country and the other stakeholders like banks, other financial institutions, various Government bodies, NGOs, industry experts, consultants and trainers, academia, research & technical institutions etc. to come together. This will facilitate the stakeholders to leverage the expertise of each other to their mutual growth and benefit.

Sh. Madhav Lal, Secretary (MSME), speaking on the occasion, said that Virtual Clusters would allow small businesses belonging to different sectors to co-exist with their fellow enterprises on the web-portal and enable them to capitalize on the benefits of networking. This would contribute towards further growth of MSME Sector.

The web-portal will be administered by The National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD), an organization under the Ministry of MSME.

Virtual Clusters portal enables dispersed small businesses to network with stakeholders and access institutional support online. A dedicated Virtual Clusters web-portal has been launched to supplement physical clusters by enabling dispersed small businesses to network online with banks, financial institutions, government bodies, NGOs, experts, consultants, trainers, academia and research institutions to share expertise and access services. The portal will be administered by the National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development under the Ministry of MSME to provide governance, stakeholder engagement and support for MSME sector growth.