Mr Vinai Kumar Saxena

Saxena said: “He was expecting higher results; however, due to these agitations and lockdown, several Khadi exhibitions, planned in the months of February and March were cancelled and the year-end clearance sale could not happen”. While the Village Industries (VI) products worth Rs 33,425 crore were produced in 2015-16; production went up by 96 % to Rs 65,393.40 crore in 2019-20. It also recorded an increase in sale of products by nearly 110% from Rs 40,385 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 84,675.39 crore in 2019-20.

Besides the Khadi apparels, a wide range of village industry products like cosmetics, soaps and shampoos, Ayurvedic medicines, honey, oils, tea, pickles, papads, hand sanitizers, confectionery, food items and leather items too have attracted a large number of consumers across the country and abroad. This resulted in increasing the production and sale of village industry products by nearly two times in five years. Notably, KVIC has also made sustained strides to garner support from various state Governments, PSUs like Air India, IOC, ONGC, REC and others, colleges, universities, Indian Railways and Ministry of Health among others. Further, in the village industry sector, KVIC boasts of over 150 products with in-house capacity of excellence in fields like bee-keeping, pottery and bakery, KVIC said.