After yoga, Centre plans to tap khadi to boost India's growing soft-power

MSME ministry may encourage, incentivise Indian diaspora abroad to open and run khadi outlets, shops

After yoga, the Narendra Modi government at the Centre is now increasingly looking to promote khadi as an international brand with a special focus on Indian diaspora.

According to a strategy approved by the Centre, the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) might even encourage and incentivise Indian diaspora abroad to open and run khadi outlets and shops.

In the first phase, the Ministry plans to exhibit brand khadi in all the embassies and consulate offices either within their premises or outside. The exhibitions would not only showcase Indian khadi products and items but will also give a detailed description on their production and value for the villages. 

In the second phase, the ministry plans to target Indian diaspora through regular interventions and exhibitions and participating in their social functions to publicise about khadi. 

In the third and final stage, the ministry plans to enter into collaborations with the Department of Commerce to boost exports of khadi and will also encourage people settled abroad to open khadi shops and outlets. 

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The proposal was recently approved by the MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra.

“Till now [a] lot of efforts have been made to take khadi abroad as a brand from India, but none could succeed. However, this time a full-fledged action plan has been devised with fixed timelines to ensure that khadi becomes India’s next big soft-power after yoga,” Shailesh Vats, spokesperson of the Ministry of MSME told Business Standard.

The Centre has targeted to increase production of khadi to Rs 2,000 crore in terms of market value in 2017-18, which would help in generating additional employment of 1.95 million persons primarily in rural India.

In 2014-15, the production of khadi stood at RS 879.98 crore in terms of market value, which increased to Rs 1,065.6 crore in 2015-16. The production further rose by over 31 per cent amounting to Rs 1,395.94 crore in 2016-17. 

Sale of khadi stood at Rs 1,170.38 crore in 2014-15, which increased to Rs 1,510 crore in 2015-16. In 2016-17, sales witnessed a growth of 32.83 per cent amounting to Rs 2,005.75 crore, Minister of State for MSME Giriraj Singh told Parliament recently. 

The Centre has also granted a financial assistance of Rs 25 lakh per unit in urban areas and Rs 20 lakh in rural areas for renovation and modernisation of sales outlets under Khadi and Village Industries Corporation (KVIC).

It has also entered into agreements with the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Aditya Birla and Raymond to boost quality and sales of the khadi products.