New Delhi [India], January 3 (ANI): The Quality Council of India (QCI) and the Khadi Village and Industries Commission (KVIC) embarked on a collaboration to enhance the quality of khadi products, empower the artisans, and introduce the ‘Made in India’ label for Khadi.
Khadi is a symbol of self-reliance and sustainable development and the incumbent government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, in particular, has been actively promoting it.
The MoU was signed at Kochrab Ashram, Ahmedabad, symbolising the significance of Khadi and Mahatma Gandhi, who popularised it as a symbol of India’s struggle for independence and a means of empowering rural India.
The exchange of MoU took place in the presence of Jaxay Shah, Chairperson, QCI and Manoj Kumar, Chairperson, KVIC.
The collaboration between QCI and KVIC, aimed at paving the path for a Viksit Bharat, is focused to enhancing the overall quality ecosystem, ensuring that Khadi not only retains its timeless appeal but also becomes a global symbol of quality and sustainability.
Under this MoU, the QCI will extend its support to KVIC by enhancing the quality of Khadi and Khadi and Village Industries products through various interventions, including third-party assessment frameworks, and empowering the artisans through various interventions, including capacity building, to improve their productivity and earning potential and promote Khadi products, both domestically and internationally.
In addition to this, this collaboration will also introduce the ‘Made in India’ label for Khadi, which will bring a significant boost to the Khadi industry as a whole in terms of increased production and sale of Khadi products.
Furthermore, it will also bring about several benefits for Khadi artisans, including increased income; more productivity and efficiency by equipping them with enhanced skills and knowledge; new employment opportunities and certainly, greater recognition.
“In the words of Gandhi Ji, Khadi isn’t a piece of cloth but an ideology of self-reliant India. Khadi also represents India’s cultural identity, craftsmanship, and sustainability, however, today, it stands at the crossroads of tradition and modernity. When today, we are working towards achieving the goal of Viksit Bharat, this collaboration will certainly contribute to retain the essence of Khadi while forging a path for larger global recognition,” said Jaxay Shah, Chairperson, QCI.
Manoj Kumar, Chairperson, KVIC, said, “Khadi is India’s handwoven symbol of self-reliance as well as sustainability. The industry has witnessed quite a phenomenal growth in production in the past few years with an astonishing growth of 268% from the year 2013-14 to 2022-23.”
“While the sales surged by a staggering 332% growth in the same period. This robust growth translated into 9.54 lakh jobs in FY23 alone. Now, with this collaboration with QCI, we are confident that Khadi industry and artisans associated with it will witness more recognition and more inclination of consumers towards Khadi,” Manoj Kumar added. (ANI)
