The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), under the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME), organized a national-level exhibition during the Mahakumbh from January 14 to February 27, 2025.
Photo: twitter (@kvicindia)
The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), under the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME), organized a national-level exhibition during the Mahakumbh from January 14 to February 27, 2025.
The exhibition recorded historic sales of Khadi products worth ₹12.02 crore.
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Manoj Kumar, Chairman of KVIC, stated that the exhibition featured 98 Khadi stalls and 54 village industry stalls, generating sales of ₹9.76 crore in Khadi products and ₹2.26 crore in village industry products.
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As part of the ‘New Khadi for New India’ movement, Kumar distributed 2,050 bee boxes, honey colonies, and toolkits to 205 beekeepers across six states via video conference from KVIC’s Rajghat office in Delhi.
KVIC Chairman Kumar emphasized that, in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of expanding the ‘Sweet Revolution’ across rural India, the ‘Honey Mission’ has been launched to provide bee colonies and bee boxes to beekeepers.
Addressing artisans, he recalled that in 2016, from Deesa in Banaskantha, Gujarat, PM Modi had called for a ‘Sweet Revolution’ alongside the ‘White Revolution.’
Inspired by this vision, KVIC introduced the ‘Honey Mission’ in 2017, under which over 20,000 beneficiaries have received two lakh bee boxes and bee colonies to date.
Highlighting the achievements of the Khadi sector over the past decade, Kumar stated that sales of Khadi and village industry products have grown fivefold, from ₹31,000 crore to ₹1,55,000 crore.
Khadi garment sales alone have surged sixfold, from ₹1,081 crore to ₹6,496 crore, while 10.17 lakh new jobs were created in the last financial year.
He also noted that the income of Khadi artisans has increased by 213 per cent over the past decade, with over 80 per cent of employment in the sector being generated for women.
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