Khadi industry requires aggressive help: MSME Minister of State PC Sarangi
The Minister said 15 crore people can get employment if everybody starts using khadi products in the country. The industry needs help with modern technology and marketing efforts as well for the expansion.
Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Minister of State for MSME
Bankers are "non-cooperative" in supporting the khadi industry, but we must "aggressively" help this movement of national importance, Minister of State for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Pratap Chandra Sarangi said on Tuesday in an event organised by industry lobby CII focussed to popularise khadi.
He said that khadi serves a dual purpose: providing livelihoods to millions while making them identify with a national cause. The "gentle, beautiful and soothing" khadi can be a "national ambassador", he added.
The Minister said 15 crore people can get employment if everybody starts using khadi products in the country. The industry needs help with modern technology and marketing efforts as well for the expansion, he added.
Union MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari said everything will be done to promote khadi without compromising on the core ethos of the movement, and it may include better charkhas as well.
Gadkari said the Khadi and Village Industries Commission has a turnover of Rs 71,000 crore in FY19 and he wants it to grow much larger.
Earlier this month, while addressing the MSME Meet 2019 in Bhubaneswar, Sarangi urged banks to be "reasonable towards genuine traders and entrepreneurs who ease government’s effort on employment and job creation."
Media reports quoted the Minister saying, “There are many genuine businessmen who provide thousands of jobs and livelihood to people. [A] few traders need time to repay their debts. Banks should cooperate with genuine traders who must be allowed to take time if they have already repaid a large part of their total debt."
At the MSME Meet 2019, Sarangi urged MSME Meet 2019's organising body Odisha Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (OASME) to arrange programmes in several areas in the State and provide a helping hand to the youth, in order to fulfil their dreams of becoming entrepreneurs.
He also stressed on the importance of the MSME sector, explaining that the contribution of MSME industry in manufacturing is 45 percent, while in export it is 20 percent, and in GDP is 28 percent.
“This is the second-largest sector after agriculture in terms of job creation. If the MSME sector suffers, it will directly impact the economy of the country,” he said.
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