KVIC chief gets 3 year extension

Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena will continue to head the organisation for another three years.

An official from the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) said Friday that the Centre granted the extension to Saxena, the only person in the government from corporate side heading an autonomous body, with effect from September 5, 2019.

Saxena, first appointed KVIC Chairman in October 2015, explored untapped streams of Khadi and Village Industries and implemented many innovative schemes like 'Honey Mission', 'Kumhaar Sashaktikaran Scheme' and leather artisans development scheme, he said.

The official said it was his idea that resulted in Khadi's average jump of over 62 per cent in Khadi fabric production in the last five years -- from 105.38 million sq mt in 2014-15 to 170.80 million sq mt in 2018-19.

After taking the charge in 2015, Saxena ensured the distribution of 33,000 New Model Charkhas and 6,000 modern looms, and got established 400 new Khadi institutions, a record of the Khadi Commission, helping increase production many-fold, he said.

His decision to tie-up with corporates, opening franchisees schemes, aggressive marketing and taking strong actions against sellers of spurious Khadi brought visibility to the organisation.

Following the call of 'Sweet Revolution' given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December, 2016, Saxena drafted a programme named 'Honey Mission' and launched it in August 2017 from the Presidential Edifice at Rashtrapati Bhawan, the official said.

"KVIC started identifying the farmers and unemployed youths across the nation and right from dense forest areas of Assam to tribal belt of Narmada Valley and from hilly valley of Jammu & Kashmir to Gangetic plains of Varanasi - it left no breadth and length of the nation in distributing Bee-boxes with live bee-colonies.

"In his ongoing regime of Chairman KVIC, over 1.15 lakh Bee-Boxes have been distributed between July 2017 and August 2019 which has created 15,000 direct jobs besides enhancing the farmers income," the official said.