Khadi and Village Industries Commission

The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) is a statutory body established by the Government of India under the Khadi and Village Industries Commission Act of 1956. Functioning as an apex organization under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MoMSME), KVIC took over the operations of the erstwhile All India Khadi and Village Industries Board in April 1957. It plays a pivotal socio-economic role by planning, promoting, organizing, and implementing programs for the development of Khadi and other village industries in rural areas.

Core Three-Fold Objectives

KVIC operates with a distinct multi-dimensional mandate tailored for the decentralized rural economy of India:

• The Social Objective: Providing sustainable non-farm employment opportunities for rural artisans and workers.
• The Economic Objective: Producing saleable articles using local resources to boost rural incomes and foster self-reliance.
• The Wider Objective: Creating self-reliance among the rural population and building a strong rural community spirit, aligning with the Gandhian philosophy of Gram Swaraj.

Macroeconomic Impact and Production Spheres

Khadi and Village Industries Distinction

KVIC bifurcates its operational domains into two primary segments, maintaining strict quality controls and certification standards for both:

Employment and Rural Development Footprint

• KVIC acts as a massive non-farm employer, supporting over 1.5 crore (15 million) artisans and rural entrepreneurs across India.
• The sector ensures socio-economic inclusivity, with women constituting over 40% of the total registered workforce under KVIC-supported units.
• It operates as a vital countermeasure against forced rural-to-urban migration by creating localized, low-capital-intensive livelihoods.

Key Government Schemes and Initiatives Executed by KVIC

Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP)

• KVIC serves as the single nodal executing agency at the national level for PMEGP, a major credit-linked subsidy scheme aimed at setting up micro-enterprises in the non-farm sector.
• It coordinates with State KVIC Directorates, State Khadi and Village Industries Boards (KVIBs), and District Industries Centres (DICs) for fund dissemination.
• The scheme offers a capital subsidy ranging from 15% to 35% depending on the applicant’s social category and geographic location (urban vs. rural).

Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI)

• KVIC acts as a Nodal Agency under SFURTI to organize traditional industries and artisans into collaborative, competitive clusters.
• The scheme provides financial assistance for setting up Common Facility Centers (CFCs), procurement of modern machinery, raw material banks, and aggressive brand-building initiatives.

Honey Mission and Sweet Revolution

• Launched to promote apiculture, KVIC distributes millions of bee boxes, toolkits, and provides specialized training to farmers, tribal youths, and unemployed rural citizens.
• The initiative maximizes agricultural yields via cross-pollination while simultaneously offering supplementary income through honey and beeswax extraction.

Kumhar Sashaktikaran Yojana

• An targeted intervention aimed at empowering the traditional pottery community across backward districts.
• KVIC distributes electric pottery wheels (blungers and pug mills) to replace traditional manual wheels, drastically increasing productivity, reducing physical drudgery, and eliminating market middlemen.

Modernization, Digitalization, and Global Outreach

Intellectual Property and the ‘Khadi’ Trademark

• To prevent unauthorized commercial exploitation, KVIC has secured exclusive Trademark Registrations for the brand name “KHADI” across multiple product classes in India and internationally, including countries like Germany, the UK, Australia, Russia, and China.
• The legal framework mandates that no product can be sold as ‘Khadi’ without obtaining a formal ‘Khadi Mark’ certification from KVIC.

E-Commerce and Institutional Linkages

• kviconline.gov.in: KVIC has developed a centralized, multi-vendor e-commerce portal to give rural artisans direct market access to urban and global consumers without intermediaries.
• Government e-Marketplace (GeM): Khadi products are systematically onboarded onto the GeM portal, making it mandatory for central ministries and public sector undertakings (PSUs) to prioritize procurement from KVIC certified vendors under the Public Procurement Policy.

Khadi Prakritik Paint

• An innovative, eco-friendly, and non-toxic paint developed by KVIC using cow dung as its primary raw material.
• This initiative creates an alternate revenue stream for dairy farmers and rural entrepreneurs while promoting sustainable, anti-bacterial, and cost-effective construction materials.

KVIC Factfile for Prelims

Structural Composition

KVIC is a closely-knit body consisting of a Chairman and several expert members representing different geographical zones, traditional industries, and financial institutions, all appointed directly by the Central Government.

REGP Legacy

Before PMEGP was introduced in 2008, KVIC successfully administered the Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP), which was later merged with the Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana (PMRY) to create the current PMEGP framework.

Institutional Sales

KVIC maintains a massive retail footprint through its own departmental “Khadi India” flagship emporiums in metropolitan cities and thousands of institutional sales outlets run by certified Khadi institutions.

Strategic Collaboration with MSME-TCs

KVIC collaborates with MSME Technology Centres to provide design interventions, export-ready packaging training, and advanced quality testing labs for village industry products to ensure global compliance.