Team News Riveting
New Delhi, December 15
The sale of local products including those made by khadi and other local and village industries had seen phenomenal increase, registering a record increase in the sale during the festival season of Diwali, 2020.
Ministry of MSME in pursuance to Prime Minister’s clarion call for Atma-Nirbhar Bharat and for ‘Vocal for Local’, launched a massive social media campaign to promote local products made by artisans and MSMEs. The campaign ran over a month with videos and messages of around a dozen local products and processes. It was a huge success and became very popular.
Overall, there is almost 300 per cent increase during Diwali this year over Diwali in 2019 in the sale of a basket of products. The total sales in amount terms by a sample of outlets of Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), spread in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh has increased four times to around Rs 21 crore this Diwali from previous year’s Rs 5 crore.
This record increase, in spite of COVID-19 pandemic in the country, has taken place across almost all products including khadi, agarbatti, candle, diya, honey, metal art products, glass articles including Charkha in box, agro and food items, cotton and silk fabric, woollen and embroidery products.
This remarkable sale of Khadi and other small and village industry products this year assumes great significance especially in light of the present human and logistics limitations due to Covid. Due to lockdown and social distancing norms, almost all activities were on the standstill. However, MSME Ministry, the KVIC and the MSMEs themselves continued with their diverse activities across the country and rose to the occasion with manufacturing of specialty products like facemasks and other personal hygiene products needed in Covid like hand wash and hand sanitizers.
The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises sector has been an important pillar of Indian economy with its vast network of more than six crore family members: enterprises and entrepreneurs. The record sale of their products this Diwali is a symbol of people’s love for local artisans and products. This re-establishes the vital role of MSMEs in the economic and social development of the country.
The Ministry officials are hopeful that this increase in sales of local and traditional products will continue over the coming months, thereby strengthening the livelihoods and the earnings of a large number of people depending on them. To facilitate this, among other measures, they are adopting digitization, e-marketing and export promotion in a big way.
