Centre plans to tap khadi to boost soft-power

After Yoga, the Government of India is now working to establish ‘khadi’ as an internationally known Indian entity. This will further increase India’s soft power globally. For this, a special focus would be laid on the Indian Diaspora.

According to a strategy approved by the Centre Govt., the MSME ministry might even incentivise the India Diaspora to open and run khadi outlets abroad.
The whole strategy will be executed in three phases:
In the first phase, the ministry plans to exhibit the brand ‘Khadi’ in or around all the Indian brands and consulate offices. The exhibitions would not only promote khadi products but will also provide information on the production process and the value of the enterprise to Rural India.

The second phase will include targeting the Indian Diaspora through regular exhibitions, interventions and participation inn social functions.

The third and the final step will be the govt’s collaboration with the ministry of commerce to boost the exports of khadi and incentivising the Indian Diaspora to open and run the related outlets abroad.

The proposal was recently approved by the MSME Minister Mr. 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 the production of khadi to INR 2000 Crore in terms of market value in the year 2017-18, which would additionally help in generating employment of 1.95 million people, primarily in rural India.

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

Source: Business Standard