UP to partner Amazon for global marketing of traditional industries

UP has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Amazon for showcasing 'UP Khadi' over its online marketplace apart from training artisans

To boost traditional industries under its ambitious ‘One District One Product’ (ODOP) scheme, the Yogi Adityanath government is mulling to partner with US ecommerce major Amazon for global branding and marketing.

While, UP has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Amazon for showcasing ‘UP Khadi’ over its online marketplace apart from training artisans, the state is talking to the ecommerce major with regards to more than half dozen other traditional products.

UP Mirco, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) secretary Bhuvnesh Kumar told Business Standard Amazon had already agreed to showcase traditional products representing 6 different districts.

Besides, the government is gearing up to host a mega ODOP Summit on August 10, which would be inaugurated by President Ram Nath Kovind. The event is expected to give a major push to the scheme and boost MSMEs, which forms the state’s industrial backbone.

UP is famous for product specific traditional industrial hubs across 75 districts viz. Varanasi (Banarasisilk sari), Bhadohi (carpet), Lucknow (chikan), Kanpur (leather goods), Agra (leather footwear), Aligarh (lock), Moradabad (brassware), Meerut (sports goods), Saharanpur (wooden products) etc.

The government is working on a multi-pronged strategy to promote ODOP and encourage entrepreneurs come on board and benefit from the concept. He said a roadmap was being prepared to sew alliances with big shopping malls for branding and marketing of traditional products.

In first phase, the state would launch 1,000 ODOP retail outlets at strategic places such as railway stations, while entrepreneurs would also be provided financial support. The state plans to establish ODOP clusters at Ambedkar Nagar, Etawah, Gautam Budh Nagar, Hapur, Barabanki, Agra, Kanpur City, Kanpur Dehat, Hamirpur and Fatehpur.

Recently, UP MSME minister Satyadev Pachauri had said ODOP scheme had been conceptualised to reviving and giving wings to the state’s traditional industries and that the government was taking all steps to scale up units and generate self employment opportunities.

He noted ODOP would integrate 20 million workers with MSMEs. UP is home to nearly 5 million MSMEs and the sector forms a vital cog in the state’s economic development roadmap, including jobs. Exports from the state MSME sector had clocked 6% growth to touch Rs 890 billion in 2017-18 vis-à-vis Rs 840 billion in 2016-17.

MSME sector contributes 60% of UP’s industrial output, employs 40 million people and generates direct economic activity worth Rs 1.2 trillion.

At UP Investors Summit 2018, the MSME sector had netted investment proposals worth Rs 60 billion, although aggregate commitments to the sector was much higher, considering a number of MSME proposals were clubbed under different heads, such as food processing, services etc. The state received total investment commitments of Rs 4.68 trillion, of which foundation of Rs 600 billion projects would be laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Sunday.