Ahmedabad:
Kahdi and Village Industry Commission (KVIC), Chairman, Vinai Saxena, today said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to the general public to wear at least one Khadi dress in a week has generated huge demand for the fabric.

Talking to media persons here after inaugurating a renovated Khadi India outlet in Relief Road, Mr Saxena said that a huge demand was generated in Khadi due to Prime Minister’s appeal to the general public to wear at least one Khadi dress in a week. Several PSUs, Govt Departments and even the private companies have started adopting Khadi as Uniforms for their staff and employees. Recently JK Cement placed an order of 7000 meters of dress material with KVIC, which come under the Ministry of Micro Small & Medium Enterprises, for employees uniforms. Further the Petroleum Ministry has also issued directives to all oil
companies under it to adopt Khadi for uniforms of permanent as well as temporary employees.

Mr. Saxena said that even in the last financial year; when other similar industries were not doing well and reported the growth of just 5-7%, Khadi had registered a jump of 29% in sales.During 2014-15, the total sale of Khadi was at Rs 1170 crores which has gone up to Rs 1520 crores during the year 2015-16, which itself shows the growing demand of Khadi in the Country.

The KVIC chairman also said that there were 7036 Khadi sales outlets across the country of which 1000 wouldl be modernized during the current financial year for which Rs 50 crores has already been allocated. Remaining outlets will be modernized in a phased manner, He said. Saxena addressed Sales staff and told theme that their role is very important to improve the image of Khadi

Mr. Saxena said that in Ahmedabad, two more modern Khadi outlets will be opened soon.

– DeshGujarat