Yogi Adityanath wants UP Khadi industry to jump on to online bandwagon

Directed officials to develop portal for marketing UP Khadi products, boosting entrepreneurship for creating jobs at local level

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath wants the humble Khadi to jump on the online bandwagon for future growth and youth appeal.

Adityanath has now directed officials to develop a portal for the marketing of UP Khadi products and boosting entrepreneurship for creating jobs at the local level. The CM also wants UP Khadi to be aggressively promoted as a district brand. Additionally, he has ordered for the creation of a comprehensive database/repository comprising the whole range of food and non-food products distinct to the state.

For aggressively marketing state Khadi products, the UP Khadi and Gramudyog department has drafted an action plan to position UP Khadi as an exclusive entity in the domestic market supported by a distinct logo and theme.

The department plans to tie up with established design and fashion institutes to promote the state Khadi products. Besides, operational Khadi units would be upgraded with special training and skilling workshops to introduce modern technologies and contemporary fashion trends.

Further, plans are afoot to collaborate with top e-commerce companies such as Amazon and Flipkart to hawk Khadi products and virtually bridging the seller and buyer gap.

Meanwhile, Adityanath has stressed the need to push investment in the UP Khadi sector apart from ensuring that the available resources and infrastructure was optimally utilised.

Besides, he underlined that a blueprint is prepared for promoting research on Khadi, design, standardisation, and marketing. The state would also promote Khadi under its flagship ‘One District, One Product’ scheme, which aims at nurturing district specific traditional industries and handicrafts. The government would set up industrial clusters to support such industries and to add value to the products.

The Adityanath government has adopted the Gujarat Model to boost Khadi based manufacturing and marketing. Khadi is expected to serve the dual purpose of boosting the bottom of the pyramid manufacturing and creating fresh job opportunities.

Last year, the state cabinet had decided to increase subsidy on the sale of Khadi products from 10 percent to 15 percent. The incentive would be given if the Khadi products are manufactured in the state. The subsidy, to be reimbursed through direct benefit transfer, would be equally divided between the weavers/spinners, manufacturer, and marketer.

“UP is basically a consumer state, but we also need to strive towards giving impetus to the manufacturing sector,” UP health minister and spokesperson Siddharth Nath Singh had then said.

Earlier, a team of Khadi department officials had toured Gujarat to study their model of branding, promotion, and marketing of Khadi. Apart from Gujarat government officials, the team had also interacted with the Khadi manufacturers and vendors.

After coming to power, the Adityanath government has been working on giving a modern makeover to Khadi to benefit all its stakeholders, especially at the lowest ladder in the value chain.