Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: Khadi and village industries after the independence have emerged significantly to symbolise Indian nationalism, with khadi evolving beyond a piece of cloth to reflect a sense of freedom and self-reliance for independent India. Khadi as a movement was started in 1918 by Mahatma Gandhi as part of the Swadeshi Movement to replace foreign materials and products with locally produced goods and also to establish the local industry for job creation. Post 1947, the significance of khadi was reflected in the act of spinning and weaving that grew into an ideology of being independent.
Over the years, the Khadi & Village Industries Commission (KVIC), which was established under the Khadi and Village Industries Commission Act, 1956 (61 of 1956) to develop khadi and village industries, has been identified as one of the major organizations to generate sustainable employment opportunities in rural areas. Below are some of the key accomplishments of khadi and village industries since independence:
- Over 2,863 khadi institutions set up to implement the programmes of Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) engaging more than 4.97 lakh people. Out of the total count, over 80 percent were women artisans involved.
- KVIC’s turnover in FY22 increased to Rs 1.15 lakh crore, up 20 per cent from Rs 95,741.74 crores in FY21. According to the MSME ministry, KVIC achieved a height which remains a distant goal for all FMCG companies in India. While the khadi sector saw 43.20 per cent growth in FY22 from Rs 3,528 crore in FY21, the village industries’ turnover hit Rs 1,10,364 crore in FY22 vis-a-vis Rs 92,214 crore in the previous year.
- The number of jobs created through micro enterprises set up under KVIC’s Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) hit a record high of 8,25,752 in FY22 since the launch of the programme in 2008. Also, the number of enterprises set up during the year went over 1 lakh to 1,03,219 for the first time in the past 14 years. The employment by village industries stood at 1.59 crore as of December 2021.
- KVIC launched its e-commerce on July 7, 2020, with around 700 products. The portal crossed Rs 1 crore gross online sales within eight months of its operations and delivered over 1 lakh products to more than 10,000 customers out of the 65,000 visitors to the portal as of February 26, 2021, according to KVIC.
- 365 clusters approved during the last three years and around Rs 1,025 crore released, benefitting 2,09,741 artisans under KVIC’s Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI). The scheme aims at organising traditional industries such as textiles, handicraft, agro processing, bamboo, honey, khadi and coir sector etc., into clusters and provide them with sustainable income generation.
