National Small Industry Corporation (NSIC) is set to launch a B2B IT portal for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), this October, reports PTI. The portal will be on the lines of the global b2b marketplace Alibaba. NSIC will charge an annual listing fee of Rs 5,000, from the enterprises, which will give them access to a database of 2,50,000 potential customers. According to NSIC, the portal will feature hit counters for individual members that list themselves on the site, virtual buyer-seller meets, in addition to facilitating requests for quotations for business orders. It will offer details about the enterprises including detailed product catalogues and pictures. Meanwhile Alibaba is expecting a growth of 50% in terms of the number of registered SME's in India which would take the total number of registered accounts to 3 million. The company launched its India office in August 2010 and has been conducting various events including offline Trade Fairs to expand its presence in the country. Also, another b2b marketplace portal, IndiaMart recently collaborated with Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) to offer a dedicated Korean Products Pavilion section on its website to enable Korean Small and Medium businesses to host microsites or product catalogue pages on IndiaMart and generate leads from Indian buyers. When it comes to implementing the announcements that it makes, the Government, it seems likes doing things at a leisurely pace, after files travel inter-department, and recommendations are made by different committees. Medianama readers would recall that the Indian Government had announced the launch of…
