The North East is richly endowed with natural resources and the Zone is well known for its extensive forests with varieties of flora and fauna. The landscape is made up of hills and valleys filled with natural beauty. The people of North East Zone live their varied life with colorful customs. The women of this region weave fairy tales on the looms, one of the world’s finest artistic traditions which finds expression in their exquisitely woven Endi, Muga and Pat Silk fabrics. In the hills, most of the tribes have their own distinctive weaving designs. The handicrafts for which this region is equally famous are also mostly made in village homes from Jute, Wood, Cane & Bamboo etc.
Khadi and Village Industries occupies a unique position in rural economy of this region by not only contributing substantially towards strengthening the economic base of the villages but also by effecting utilization of the vast natural resources untapped hitherto and significant manpower.
The Zone comprises of Eight States – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. KVIC has State Offices in each State mostly in the State Capitals at Itanagar, Guwahati, Imphal, Shillong, Aizawl, Dimapur (State Capital: Kohima), Gangtok and Agartala respectively. Besides Eight State Offices, KVIC has established a Zonal Office for North Eastern Zone at Guwahati to oversee and supervise the working of KVI Programmes in the Zone. A Sub-Office is also functioning at Silchar (Assam) to serve the Barak Valley and North Cachar Hills District of Assam.
In all the eight States of North East Zone, KVIC is implementing Khadi programme through State Khadi and V.I. Boards and Directly assisted institutions of the Commission.
Around 17,000 spinners and weavers are engaged in Khadi production in the Zone out of which the lion’s share is of Assam i.e. around 14,000 artisans.
During 2008-09 Khadi production increased by 33 percent in comparison to previous year, to Rs. 1007.54 lakhs against Rs. 760.58 lakhs in 2007-08. Similarly sale has also increased from Rs. 687.99 lakhs in 2007-08 to Rs. 990.91 lakhs in 2008-09. For 2009-10 the performance has already crossed the previous year’s achievement. In order to achieve rapid expansion of KVI program in this Zone untiring efforts are being made to enroll new institutions under the fold of KVIC and the response is encouraging. Already five new institutions have been enlisted under KVIC and more proposals are under process.
Scheme Of Fund For Regeneration Of Industries
In order to ensure sustainable employment as well as to increase productivity and to explore the rich potentiality of the heritage of traditional industries and survival of unique craftsmanship of the artisans in North East Region the scheme SFURTI was launched. Under this scheme KVIC is the Nodal Agency, Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE) is the Technical Agency (TA) and Directly aided Institutions of KVIC or NGO are the Implementing Agencies (IA). There are altogether 12 SFURTI Clusters in operation till date out of which 2 are Khadi Clusters and 10 are Village Industries Clusters. A total number of 7614 artisans have been directly benefited with total fund involvement to the tune of Rs. 6.39 crores.
Bamboo cluster of Jania in Barpeta district of Assam run by Anchalik Gram Unnayan Parishad recently participated in Cairo (Egypt) Exhibition sponsored by Industries Department of Govt. of Assam. Further, Assam Gramin Vikash Bank (AGVB) has agreed to finance Working Capital to the artisans of the Cluster.
Development Of Khadi Programme
(i) Work-shed Scheme for Khadi artisans and (ii) Schemes for Enhancing Productivity and Competitiveness of Khadi Artisans and Industry have also been started and the implementation is in full swing. 434 artisans in Assam and 14 artisans in Meghalaya have been sanctioned Work-shed scheme. Already 434 Work-sheds have been constructed in Assam and 14 work-sheds in Meghalaya. Total fund involvement of KVIC is to the tune of Rs. 112.00 Lakhs. During 2009-10, 298 sheds have been sanctioned with fund involvement of Rs. 74.50 lakhs.
Under the Scheme for Enhancing Productivity and Competitiveness of Khadi Programme, four directly aided institutions of Assam have been sanctioned funds to the tune of Rs. 144.53 lakhs by KVIC, out of which Rs. 75.80 lakhs have already been released.
Product Development Design Intervention And Packaging
To bring improvement in quality and to produce marketable products including improvement in Design element and Product Packaging, KVIC is financing KVI units under PRODIP Scheme. Under this scheme five projects under Khadi and nine projects under Village Industries have been financed during 2009-10.
Marketing
In order to open better marketing avenue for the KVI products of North East Region and also for good exposure to the artisans of the area, it has been decided to open a “Khadi Plaza” at Guwahati in Assam besides a “Khadi Haat” already sanctioned for Dimapur in Nagaland.
Every year Exhibitions are organized in the North East Zone. For 2009-10 KVIC has sanctioned two ‘Uttarpurva Khadi Gramodyog Darshan/Mela’ which will be organized outside the Zone, one is being organized in New Delhi and the other one will be organized during 2010-11 at Kolkata.
In addition to this KVI Units of North East Zone have participated successfully in IITF – 2009 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.
KVIC has extended Grant support for units of the Zone for participating in Domestic Exhibition outside the region in the form of to & fro traveling expenses by 2nd Class Sleeper of railway for two persons of each institution/unit. Transportation charges for actual cost of transportation of goods restricted to 500 kg of Railway freight, Food allowance @ Rs. 150/- per person per day.
Similarly, Grant support has also been extended for institutions/units to participate in other exhibitions within the region.
KVIC is also extending Grant support for institutions/units of other than North East Zone to participate in exhibitions in the North East Zone.
KVIC is also initiating steps for export of KVI products. Exportable products are under process of identification and potential institutions units have already enrolled as Members of the KVIC– Export Promotion Council.
ISO 9001-2001
One directly aided institution of Assam is already in the advanced stage for obtaining ISO 9001-2001 certificate.
Central Sliver Plant At Guwahati
The process of setting up a Central Sliver Plant at Guwahati, in technical collaboration with the IIT, Guwahati to meet the raw materials needs (Endi, Muga and Silk Sliver) of Khadi institutions in the Zone is in the offing. Uttar Purbanchal Khadi Gramodyog Maha Sangha has agreed to provide land as well as its 10% contribution for setting up of the Project. IIT, Guwahati has already prepared a Detailed Project Report which is in the process of getting sanction from the Commission.
Human Resource Development
HRD is one of the thrust areas receiving special attention as far as this Region is concerned. There are five Multi Disciplinary Training Centres working here, a noteworthy achievement was made in this regard during 2008-09, altogether 14,604 candidates were trained. As per available report more than 10,000 candidates have been trained so far during 2009-10.
Welfare Scheme
State Level Artisans Welfare fund Trust (AWFT)
The artisans working under Khadi program with the institutions are the stake-holders of the Trust. There is a provision in the costing system of Khadi for creation of this fund in the name of the artisans working with the institutions. The names of the institutions are registered with the Trust and the funds are deposited in a Bank Account. As on March 25, 2010, 31 institutions have been registered with the Trust and an amount of Rs. 9.19 lakhs was credited.
Janshree Bima Yojana
This is also a welfare scheme for Khadi artisans for covering both accidental and natural death, disability due to accident of the artisans with add on facility of scholarship to the children of artisans, studying in Class VII to XII.
Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programe
With the termination of Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP), a new scheme i.e. Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) was launched during 2008-09. As against achievement of 1380 projects during 2008-09, sanctions made by the Banks during 2009-10 (upto 26-03-2010) stood at 2836 number of projects.
State wise performance 2009-10 (upto 27-03-2010)
Sr. No. | State | Target | No. of applications forwarded to Banks | No. of application sanctioned by Banks | Margin Money disbursed | |||
No. of Projects | Margin Money | No. of Projects | Margin Money | No. of Projects | Margin Money | |||
1. | Arunachal Pradesh | 1709 | 2050.54 | 3043 | 1673 | 1553.00 | 845 | 701.66 |
2. | Assam | 86 | 102.86 | 160 | 140 | 96.82 | 140 | 96.81 |
3. | Manipur | 195 | 235.32 | 158 | 122 | 140.91 | 25 | 29.23 |
4. | Meghalaya | 202 | 241.98 | 1137 | 352 | 985.61 | 271 | 464.17 |
5. | Mizoram | 100 | 119.14 | 776 | 205 | 230.00 | 105 | 179.21 |
6. | Nagaland | 179 | 215.34 | 358 | 30 | 212.80 | 12 | 24.02 |
7. | Sikkim | 53 | 62.90 | 117 | 60 | 112.09 | 45 | 94.48 |
8. | Tripura | 197 | 236.06 | 931 | 254 | 979.88 | 102 | 119.99 |
TOTAL | 2721 | 3264.14 | 6680 | 2836 | 4311.11 | 1545 | 1709.57 |
Rural Industries Service Centre
The scheme is based on the concept of the development of artisans’ clusters, facilitating establishment of Common Facility Centre (CFC) and other infrastructural support for their skill upgradation, quality improvement, better packaging and increased marketing avenues for the KVI Products. Under this scheme, 15 percent additional subsidy on project cost is provided to NE Region as compared to 75 percent for the rest of the country. During 2009-10, seven projects were sanctioned out of which five projects have already been financed upto February 2010. Two projects sanctioned in favour of Arunachal Pradesh are in the process of implementation. Further, during 2009-10 KVIC sanctioned five RISC– PRODIP awareness camps out of which four camps have been organized. Manipur could not conduct the camp due to critical law and order situation prevailing in the State.
Publicity
Various KVI schemes/programme being implemented by the KVIC and the benefits/ facilities available to the people of North East Region in particular, are published in Print media and are broadcasted on AIR/ Television also. . Wide publicity of Schemes like PMEGP, PRODIP, RISC etc. is done through leaflets, posters, hoardings, festoons etc. during exhibitions. In addition, Peoples Education Programmes (PEP) are also arranged. During 2009-10 KVIC has released an amount of Rs. 23.85 lakhs for this Zone.