Reviving Khadi in India

<< Previous

Government Support to Khadi

The GoI had been providing huge subsidies and grants to the Khadi sector. Khadi was given a rebate¹¹ of Rs. 1.49 billion and Rs. 1.4 billion in 1998-99 and 1999-2000 respectively. In 2000-2001, funds to the tune of Rs. 1.29 billion were released for the same. During the same time, concerted efforts were made to root out corruption in the payment of rebate. Regular vigilance raids were conducted in various parts of the country to detect malpractices in claiming of Khadi rebates and to distinguish between genuine and bogus Khadi and village industries.

In May 2000, the Ministry of Small Scale Industries announced a special package of Rs.12.15 billion for KVIC. Of this, Rs.0.3 billion had been allocated for renovation of the existing outlets, while Rs 0.4 billion was sanctioned for promotional activities. Though the GoI provided huge financial assistance to KVIC, the funds did not produce the desired result. It was also being felt that the structure of KVIC needed to be changed to enable it to face the challenges of globalization. Therefore, in 2000, the global consulting firm, Arthur Anderson was hired to suggest restructuring strategies for KVIC. According to the report, submitted to the Ministry of Small Scale Industries, KVIC should be a policy-making body and play a strategic role rather than being involved in the operations. It also suggested that KVIC should be made a market-oriented organization, and given the freedom to decide on the issues of rebate. In order to improve the marketing and retailing aspects of the sector, it was proposed that an independent marketing company be formed, which would be disintegrated from the existing Khadi and village industries structure.

This company would also deal with improvements in the quality of products, packaging and marketing. It also recommended that the special rebate on Khadi products be made available in the first week of every month, instead of the usual 90-day period after the month of October. The declining production, sales, rural employment opportunities and share of Khadi in the total business of KVIC had become a matter of serious concern for the government (Refer tables I, II and III).

This had assumed greater significance as the population and per capita consumption of clothes in India had considerably increased over the years. Keeping this in view, the GoI took many initiatives to promote the sector and exploit the full potential of Khadi as a product category in all its forms. As a part of these initiatives, KVIC registered Khadi as a brand name, thereby, protecting it legally.

In order to compete with other varieties of textile and make it more acceptable in the market, improvisation was needed and new products and designs had to be developed. Keeping this objective in mind, in October 2001, KVIC signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ahmedabad-based National Institute of Design (NID) to provide it design support in order to improve the diminishing market-share of Khadi.

Under the agreement, a special cell would be set up at NID (financed by the KVIC) to provide design support services in Khadi, village industries, packaging, marketing, communication, publicity, disseminating materials and other design-related activities.

Next >>

---

11] These rebates are the discounts given by the Khadi outlets to the consumers, which can be later claimed back from the KVIC.