By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI: Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on Thursday said that the Coir Industry in India is an export oriented industry. However, the reach of the coir products in India is increasing beyond Metros and major cities.
Considering the vast geographical area available in India and the huge population, it is expected that the domestic market potential available in India is large enough to consume the entire coir production on annual basis. Government of India through Coir Board has set up 30 outlets throughout the Country for popularizing and selling coir products.
The renovation of old Showrooms is taken up on need basis. The Coir Board has already taken up and completed renovation of its Showrooms at Indore, Navi Mumbai, Lucknow, Patna, Trivandrum and Varanasi. Further renovation work of Showrooms at Jammu, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Chennai has been initiated.
Government has taken following steps to popularize, ensure availability of coir products throughout the country and create infrastructure:
(i) It has opened showrooms throughout the country.
(ii) BIS standards have been got approved for coir geo-textiles.
(iii) Coir Board initiated action to join hands with KVIC for marketing coir products through KVIC Showrooms.
(iv) Regular publicity of various coir products.
(v) 41 numbers of SFURTI coir clusters have been approved and 16 coir clusters are functional.
(vi) To modernize coir industry, youngsters and women artisans are being trained. In last three years 6474 number of women artisans have been trained.
(vii) Coir Board organizes participation in important national and international exhibitions.
The Union Minister also informed that Ministry of MSME has been providing loans to unemployed youth for promoting Khadi and Village Industries, by implementing a credit linked subsidy scheme viz., Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) since 2008-09, for setting up of new micro-enterprises and to generate employment opportunities, in rural as well as urban areas of the country through Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), State Khadi & Village Industries Boards (KVIBs) and District Industries Centres (DICs).
General category beneficiaries can avail of margin money subsidy of 25% of the project cost in rural areas and 15% in urban areas. For beneficiaries belonging to special categories such as SC/ST/Women/PH/Minorities/Ex-Servicemen/NER, the margin money subsidy is 35% in rural areas and 25% in urban areas.
The maximum cost of projects is Rs.25 lakh in the manufacturing sector and Rs.10 lakh in the service sector.The individuals interested to start Khadi activities can apply for loan from Banks under the PMEGP scheme.
