Khadi Agarbatti Aatmanirbhar Mission

Union Minister for MSME, Shri Nitin Gadkari approved Khadi Agarbatti Aatmanirbhar Mission. It is a unique employment generation program proposed by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC). It will India Aatmanirbhar in Agarbatti production.

About Khadi Agarbatti Aatmanirbhar Mission

• It aims at creating employment for unemployed and migrant workers in different parts of the country and increasing domestic Agarbatti production substantially.
• The scheme designed by KVIC on Public–private partnership (PPP) mode.
• It requires a very less investment.
• It will help private Agarbatti manufacturers to scale up Agarbatti production without any capital investment by them.
• Under the scheme, KVIC will provide Automatic Agarbatti making machines and powder mixing machines to the artisans through the successful private Agarbatti manufacturers who will sign the agreement as business partners.
• Ministry has decided to procure only locally made machines by Indian manufacturers which also aims at encouraging local production.

Sharing model

• KVIC will provide 25% subsidy on the cost of the machines and will recover the remaining 75% of the cost from the artisans in easy installments every month.
• The business partner will provide the raw material to the artisans for making Agarbatti and will pay them wages on job work basis.
• Cost of artisans’ training will be shared between KVIC and the private business partner wherein KVIC will bear 75% of the cost while 25% will be paid by the business partner.

Significance

• Employment– Each automatic Agarbatti making machine makes approximately 80 kg Agarbatti per day which will provide direct employment to 4 persons.
• Earning– The current job work rate for Agarbatti making is Rs 15 per kg. At this rate, 4 artisans working on one Automatic Agarbatti machine will earn minimum Rs 1200 per day by making 80 kg of Agarbatti. Hence every artisan will earn at least Rs 300 per day.
• The wages to the artisans will be provided by the business partners on weekly basis directly in their accounts through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) only.

The scheme has been designed after import restriction on Raw Agarbatti and increase in import duty on Bamboo sticks imposed by the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Finance respectively on the initiative of Shri Gadkari.

About KVIC

KVIC is a statutory body formed in April 1957  by the Government of India, under the ‘Khadi and Village Industries Commission Act of 1956’. It is an apex organisation under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. It seeks to – “plan, promote, facilitate, organise and assist in the establishment and development of khadi and village industries in the rural areas in coordination with other agencies engaged in rural development wherever necessary.” Its head office is in Mumbai, along with six zonal offices in Delhi, Bhopal, Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai and Guwahati. Other than its zonal offices, it has offices in 28 states for the implementation of its various programmes.

Month: Current Affairs - September, 2020