Walmart to train 50,000 MSME entrepreneurs

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 9

US retail major Walmart would open 25 institute hubs in India in next five years, which would train 50,000 entrepreneurs from the micro, small & medium enterprises (MSME) sector, said a top company official.

The company would create Walmart Vriddhi Supplier Development Programme to prepare Indian small businesses to enter global supply chains. Walmart Vriddhi will actively work with India’s micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) to expand domestic capabilities and participate in the global economy.

Walmart will team up with Swasti, a non-profit organisation with a track record in community development, to expand and accelerate existing programmes in training and certification for Flipkart’s and Walmart’s supplier development communities.

Walmart and Swasti hope to deliver high-quality education via university partners at 25 Walmart Vriddhi institutes, making training accessible locally in the communities where India’s MSME entrepreneurs live and work. The institutes will be opened over the next five years on pan-India locations convenient for MSMEs from a wide variety of industries and product categories.

Launching the initiative, Judith McKenna, president and chief executive officer of Walmart International, said, “The Vriddhi programme will encourage Indian suppliers to make for online and offline customers around the world, including – but not limited to – the supply chains of Flipkart and Walmart. That openness makes us unique and can truly create opportunities for those who participate. Whether a supplier has ambitions domestically or around the globe, Walmart Vriddhi will give them the tools they need to succeed.”

Walmart believes that helping local suppliers develop to become part of the wider supply chain in India and globally will help create domestic jobs and sustained growth for the Indian MSME sector. Consumers will be able to access quality goods from India, no matter where in the world they are buying.

The initiative 

• Walmart will team up with Swasti, a non-profit organisation with a track record in community development, to expand and accelerate existing programmes in training and certification for Flipkart’s and Walmart’s supplier development communities

• Walmart and Swasti hope to deliver high-quality education via university partners at 25 Walmart Vriddhi institutes, making training accessible locally in the communities where India’s MSME entrepreneurs live and work

• The institutes will be opened over the next five years on pan-India locations convenient for MSMEs from a wide variety of industries and product categories

.