Towards Digital Ecosystems for Skill Based Industrial Clusters: Lessons from the `Digital Mandi' Project

India has a rich foundation of clusters, and initiatives to boost the various functional areas of a cluster by pinpointing the anomalies that cloud them can lead to their dynamism. The digital ecosystem (DE) is one approach through which diffusion and use of ICT can be made self sustaining and self enabling for clusters, specifically clusters that thrive on value addition through embodying their product with skill and craftsmanship. This paper reports initial empirical findings from a collaborative project called the 'Digital Mandi'. The digital ecosystem entails a series of interconnected and intra-dependant digital platforms, created at key institutional levels (international, national and local/Community) augmented by technical (ICT) and social networking processes that help break down barriers to both horizontal and vertical knowledge sharing. The empirical findings show that the 'ecosystem' approach speeds up the process of identification, development and uptake of innovation. We conclude that similar DBEs can be effective for skill based SME clusters facing similar challenges of competitiveness in a rapidly globalizing knowledge driven economy.