Leading fashion designer Ritu Beri has been appointed as an advisor to Khadi and Village Industries Commission as part of measures to attract youth to Khadi and revive the "neglected" sector, its Chairman Vinay Kumar Saxena said here today.
"Khadi was a neglected sector. Government of India is working very hard to revive this sector. We have launched various schemes. For example, we are now approaching government departments, private institutions, private companies to adopt Khadi and responses are very encouraging," Saxena told reporters here.
When asked what steps they were taking to attract youth to Khadi, he said: "KVIC has appointed leading fashion designer Ritu Beri as advisor. She is advising and giving new designs to us, which will be appealing to youth. If you see, there is a buzz in youth also. If you visit our Delhi outlet only, you will see 50 per cent customers are youths."
"Our mobile vans are going to colleges and youth are taking to Khadi," he said.
To a question, Saxena said: "Our brand ambassador is Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is the biggest brand ambassador, nobody can match him. Because of his projection, Khadi is gaining ground."
About the range of Khadi garments, he said: "Our range starts from Rs 300 to Rs 3,000. But Ritu Beri designed cloth prices are different, we are launching very premium products also."
"It was generally believed that Khadi is for poor, old and the politicians, but we are changing this perception now."
He said earlier Railways used to give orders not more than Rs 1-2 crore, "but now for the first time we got a Railways order for Rs 40 crore in one go about two months back".
"Response from Air India to Khadi was poor earlier, now in the month of January this year, they gave an order of Rs 1.21 crore for supply of amenity kits which they supply to the business class passengers of international flights. Last week, we got another order worth Rs 8 crore from Air India, this is a very good sign," Saxena said.
The KVIC Chairman said he was making an endeavour to promote and project Khadi as a brand, as a product which is environmental-friendly, as a product which is good for the country.
"Let me tell you about the health benefits of Khadi: Khadi has zero carbon footprint. For manufacturing, one metre of Khadi requires just 3 litres of water as against 56 litres of water in the mill. You can easily see what benefit we are providing to the environment.
"Secondly, it is called an air-conditioned cloth, reason is that it is hand spun, hand woven. In the winters, it keeps you warm and in summers, it keeps you cool," he said.
