January 28, 2002

PRIME MINISTER TO MEET KVIC TEAM

    The Prime Minister Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee will address the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) at a meeting scheduled to be held at his official residence in New Delhi on 31^st January 2002. Established in September 1956 through an Act of Parliament, this will be the 500^th meeting of the Commission.

    The role of Khadi and Village Industries Commission in the national economy in the current decade, more specifically during the Tenth Five year Plan period will be discussed in the meeting. The KVIC has contributed significantly in eliminating rural unemployment and the PM especially mentioned this in his last address to the Nation on 15^th August 2001.

    KVIC will accord top importance to streamline the administrative machinery in its future strategy in order to ensure simplification, transparency and accountability in its day-to-day work. In addition, decentralisation will be a catchword in the new scheme of things, which along can bring about significant improvement in the overall scenario of the Khadi and Village Industries sector and effective delivery at the field-level to steer the KVI sector towards self-reliance, better utilisation of available resources in a meaningful way and internal generation through technical services will form the part of the developmental strategy.

    The implementation of Khadi package as recommended by K.C. Pant Committee in December 2000 and announced by Ministry of SSI and ARI in May 2001 will also be taken up in the meeting along with. Speedy implementation will accelerate the growth of KVI activities in rural areas, benefiting the rural artisans and women, mostly belonging to SC, ST and other backward communities.

    Likewise, Shri Vajpayee may discuss the implementation of National Programme for Rural Industralisation introduced in 1999 and support to National Institute for Rural Industrialisation, Wardha in order to boost the rural economy, as KVIC is the premier organisation, which has its large network in rural areas.

    The present pace of progress of the KVI sector and suggest ways and means to strengthen project approach adopted by the KVIC in recent past will also be reviewed.

    To spur the growth of rural industries sector, the KVIC would emphasis on convergence and coordination among various Government agencies operating in the rural areas in the field of infrastructure development, credit inputs, scientific and technological upgradation, R&D support for rural industrialistation and marketing network etc. Their combined efforts would definitely yield positive results.