New Delhi (India), January 5: The Quality Council of India (QCI) and the Khadi Village & Industries Commission (KVIC) embarked on a groundbreaking collaboration to enhance the quality of Khadi products, empower the artisans, and introduce the ‘Made in India’ label for Khadi, realizing the vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for promoting Khadi as a symbol of self-reliance and sustainable development. The MoU was signed at Kochrab Ashram, Ahmedabad, symbolizing the significance of Khadi and Mahatma Gandhi, who popularized it as a symbol of India’s struggle for independence and a means of empowering rural India. The exchange of MoU took place in the distinguished presence of Shri Jaxay Shah, Chairperson, QCI and Shri Manoj Kumar, Chairperson, KVIC. The collaboration between QCI and KVIC, aimed at paving the path for a Viksit Bharat, is focussed to enhance the overall quality ecosystem, ensuring that Khadi not only retains its timeless appeal but also becomes a global symbol of quality and sustainability.
QCI will extend its support to KVIC by enhancing the quality of Khadi and Khadi & Village Industries products through various interventions, including third-party assessment frameworks, empowering the artisans through various interventions, including capacity building to improve their productivity and earning potential and promoting Khadi products, both domestically and internationally. In addition to this, this collaboration will also introduce the ‘Made in India’ label for Khadi, which will bring significant boost to the Khadi industry as a whole in terms of increased production and sale of Khadi products as a symbol of quality across the globe. Furthermore, it will also bring about a number of benefits for Khadi artisans, including increased income, more productivity, and efficiency by equipping them with enhanced skills and knowledge, new employment opportunities, and certainly, greater recognition.
On this momentous occasion, Shri Jaxay Shah, Chairperson, QCI, stated, “It is a moment of immense pride to partner with KVIC to enhance the quality of Khadi and KVIC products and empower the artisans involved because Khadi is not just an industry but a symbol of India’s culture and heritage. In the words of Gandhi Ji, Khadi isn’t a piece of cloth but an ideology of self-reliant India. Khadi also represents India’s cultural identity, craftsmanship, and sustainability. However, today, it stands at the crossroads of tradition and modernity. When today, we are working towards achieving the goal of Viksit Bharat, this collaboration will certainly contribute to retain the essence of Khadi while forging a path for larger global recognition.”
During the event, Shri Manoj Kumar, Chairperson, KVIC, said, “Khadi is India’s handwoven symbol of self-reliance as well as sustainability. The industry has witnessed quite a phenomenal growth in production in the past few years with an astonishing growth of 268% from the year 2013-14 to 2022-23. While the sales surged by a staggering 332% growth in the same period. This robust growth translated into 9.54 lakh jobs in FY23 alone. Now, with this collaboration with QCI, we are confident that the Khadi industry and artisans associated with it will witness more recognition and more inclination of consumers towards Khadi.”
About Quality Council of India:
Quality Council of India (QCI) was established as a National body for Accreditation on recommendations of Expert Mission of EU after consultations in Inter-ministerial Task Force, Committee of Secretaries and Group of Ministers through a Cabinet decision in 1996. Accordingly, QCI was set up through a PPP model as an independent autonomous organization with the support of Government of India and the Indian Industry represented by the three premier industry associations, (i) Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), (ii) Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and (iii) Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
QCI is a non-profit organization registered under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry was designated as the nodal point for all matters connected with quality and QCI to structure and help implementation of the Cabinet decision.
QCI has been established to create a mechanism for independent third-party assessment of products, services and processes. It plays a pivotal role at the national level in propagating, adoption and adherence to quality standards in all important spheres of activities including education, healthcare, environment protection, governance, social sectors, infrastructure sector and such other areas of organized activities that have significant bearing in improving the quality of life and wellbeing of the citizens of India.
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