Nitin Gadkari, Minister for MSME and Road Transport & Highways who presided over a brainstorming session to develop market acceptable designs for khadi, said in New Delhi today that in order to maximize the production and sale of khadi and make it a global brand, there is a need to make its designs more trendy and modern, without compromising with tradition.

He said we need to make khadi attractive for the youth of the country. The product designs should be aligned to customer choices and demand, and take into account the local and regional preferences and requirements like weather condition, local designs etc.

The Khadi and Village Industries Corporation (KVIC) under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises proposes to establish National Design and Product Development Centres in the country to facilitate Khadi institutions develop trendy designs as per market demand.

The proposed design houses will facilitate Khadi institutions in developing  products according to market demand. The primary role of a design house will be to identify the latest design trends, adopt them as per customer needs and undertake various testing and review activities for translating them into production. Design house will help Khadi to gain customers’ trust and lead to increase in production and employment generation.

Gadkari has asked the designers to send their ideas and suggestions in this regard to KVIC and Ministry of MSME for further discussions.

KVIC’s proposal is to set up four design houses – one each in the eastern, western, northern, southern parts of the country, besides one in the  north east. These could be on BOT mode or on Outsourcing basis.

Secretary MSME Dr Arun Kumar Panda, Secretary Textiles Ravi Capoor, Chairman KVIC VK Saxena, reputed designers Ritu Beri, Rohit Bal, JJ Valaya , Raghavendra Rathor and senior officials from the Ministries of MSME and Textiles, KVIC,  National Institute of Design (NID), National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) attended the meeting.