All You Need To Know About The 'CHAMPIONS' Portal Launched By The Ministry Of MSME

• On June 1, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Champions portal for Micro, Small, and Medium Businesses (MSME). The Ministry of MSME decided to set up the technical portal to promote and empower various startups and businesses by "helping and handholding, in particular, by solving their problems and grievances." According to the official website under the Ministry of MSME, the word 'CHAMPIONS' stands for Creation and Harmonious Application of Modern Processes for Increasing the Output and National Strength.

Objective and Purpose

• This portal intends to be the one-stop place for MSME's to redress their grievances and harness entrepreneurial talent while discovering new chances to up their business game.
• The three main objectives through which the one window portal would assist to make small units big is as follows
• During an unprecedented crisis, like the pandemic we are in, the technical portal would aid in finance, raw materials, labour, permissions etc.
• The portal will also assist in providing opportunities and occasions in the manufacturing and services sector.
• The technical one window portal would also help identify and select certain MSME's who can withstand and become national and international champions.

Functions and Features

Powered by ICT (Information and Communication Technology) tools including telephone, internet and video conference, the portal is a technology-packed control room-cum-management information system. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) helped in indigenously creating the entire structure of the portal at zero cost. There is also a physical infrastructure built in one of the ministry's dumping rooms in record time. A network of sophisticated control rooms is established in a Hub and Spoke model. The hub is located in New Delhi at the Secretary MSME's Office. At the same time, the spokes are located in different states at various offices and institutions of the MSME Ministry. The government has issued a detailed Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to the officers and staff deployed, and the MSME Ministry will conduct special training separately for them.

Apart from other web-based mechanisms of the MSME Ministry, the portal is fully integrated on a synchronized and simultaneous basis with the leading Centralized Public Grievances Redress And Monitoring System (CPGRAMS). The portal also answers Frequently Asked Questions concerning recent credit-injecting measures, government e-marketplace, GST, labour, employment etc.

Govt implements AI, ML Tools On 'Champions' Portal For Assistance To MSMEs

In few months after its establishment, the MSME Ministry introduced Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to reinforce and strengthen its single window system portal 'CHAMPION'. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Analytics Technology assist in understanding problems faced by MSMEs on a real-time basis on the grounds of widely available social media and online data. The Ministry is also helping the MSMEs with manufacturing products like sensors, motors, computer displays and other animation technologies through this portal.

As reported by Business Standard, an official statement expressed that AI would access insights about MSME's for its policy action through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, blogs, forums and online news, which were not available to the MSME Ministry on a holistic basis. The Ministry further stated that, until now, it was dependent on complaints and data from the CHAMPIONS portal for grievances redressal. However, the ministry reiterated that people's emotions involved with or dependent on the MSME sector will now be known to them in a real-time hassle-free manner due to AI. With the help of technology company Intel, the statement also said the Ministry is aggressively working towards taking the nation and MSME in the direction of Industry 4.0. The entire concept and scope analysis, including the design, has been done in-house in the Ministry with the help of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) under the advice and direction of a local team of Intel, MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari stated during the AI Summit organized by Intel.

How Is The Champions Portal Helpful?

There are many features of the portal that differentiates it from previously adapted traditional techniques of our government. Up until the portal was established, one could report grievances either on the central government's CPGRAMS portal or on the MSME SAMADHAAN portal. Among these two individual portals, the latter was used as an e-tracker of grievances particularly connected to delayed payments on the MSME. This comprehensive portal is understood to bring together grievances from both these existing systems. Based on nature, each of the complaints and grievances is to be directed to the concerned branch heads under the MSME Ministry. The branch heads must attend to them within three years and ensure they do not remain inconclusive after seven days.

In just about five weeks of the launch, more than 50,000 complaints filed through the portal have been resolved. Due to an abrupt halt in business activities fueled by the coronavirus pandemic, it is compelling to have such successful initiatives to help different affected sectors of MSME. However, experts suggest that there is a scope of improvement in operating a single-windowed portal like CHAMPION.

Suggested Improvements That Can Refine The Portal

A clear understanding of what entails a grievance as 'resolved' is not mentioned anywhere on the portal. As there are multiple stakeholders involved, these criteria needs to be stated clearly. The government is required to detail precisely when a grievance is resolved.

The portal's functioning requires a certain degree of transparency to keep the MSME informed on how the department can address their grievances.

Another way of improving the portal would be to link CHAMPIONS with other web-based mechanisms of MSME Ministry on the front end. As of now, there is no existing real-time tracker with the help of which the public can access time-sensitive information like the nature of complaints offered or the region where the majority of grievances is lodged. The data can be inclusive of the most commonly recorded grievances as well. Crucial information on how many existing grievances have been fast-tracked and addressed on the CHAMPIONS portal from the SAMADHAAN portal should be made available to the public.

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