Business

India’s First CoE For Khadi Inaugurated In New Delhi

With an aim of taking Khadi to newer places, a Centre for experimentation, innovation, and design has been conceived by the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) for Khadi Village and Industries Commission (KVIC) to empower Khadi Institutions throughout the country. The Centre has been envisaged to design apparel, home, and fashion accessories that appeal to people across generations. The Centre of Excellence for Khadi (CoEK) has set out to make Khadi a universal, classic, and value-driven brand. On 11th May 2022, Union Minister for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Narayan Rane inaugurated the first Centre of Excellence for Khadi in New Delhi. Further, the event will witness the participation of Minister of State MSME Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma, Minister of State for Textiles Darshana Vikram Jardosh, Secretary, Ministry of Textiles U P Singh, and Secretary, Ministry of MSME B.B Swain. The imperativeness of CoEK The Centre of Excellence for Khadi has been established at the National Institute of Fashion Technology as a hub in Delhi and spokes in Bangalore, Gandhinagar, Kolkata, and Shillong. Notably, the Centre of Excellence for Khadi is in the process of developing a Knowledge Portal for Khadi to disseminate design directions to reach out to all the Khadi Institutions. The knowledge portal entails design directions on colour, silhouettes, weave, surface, textures, prints, closures, size chart, and trims and finishes. Changing modes of KVIC The Khadi Village and Industries Commission has been charged with the planning, promotion, organisation, and implementation of programmes for the development of Khadi and other village industries in the rural areas along with other agencies engaged in rural development wherever necessary. Further, the commission also comprises building up of a reserve of raw materials and implementation for supply to producers, creation of common service facilities for processing of raw materials as semi-finished goods, and provisions of facilities for marketing of Khadi products apart from training of artisans engaged in these industries and encouragement of co-operative efforts amongst them. In order to promote, the sale and marketing of khadi and/or products of village industries or handicrafts, KVIC has also forged linkages with established marketing leaders wherever feasible and necessary. The commission also holds the responsibility of encouraging and promoting research in the production techniques and equipment employed in the Khadi and Village Industries sector. Research is being done in various domains including use of non-conventional energy and electric power.