Swaraj Ashram khadi products now available on e-tailer

LUCKNOW: Indian E-tailing giant Flipkart will now showcase a range of khadi clothes, including thirty articles from the famous Swaraj Ashram in Kanpur, a premier khadi bhandar. The items showcased, khadi denim jeans, Modi kurtas, ladies wear and shawls among others, can now be viewed on the website/ app and purchased.

Credit for this goes to the ministry of micro small and medium enterprises (MSME) of the union government, headed by Kalraj Mishra.

It is through sustained efforts of the MSME ministry that Flipkart has agreed to promote khadi products on its platform.

At present the Indian e-commerce market is pegged at over $2.5 billion. This figure is expected to shoot up to $20 billion in the next five years and fashion is expected to dominate this market. “With wider reach and easy accessibility, e-commerce is the best option before the union government to promote khadi,” said Kalraj Mishra, union minister for MSME, who was in the state capital on Saturday.

It is expected that soon the number of articles displayed will shoot up to more than a thousand, with a wide range of khadi products slated to make their appearance on Flipkart. “About a fortnight ago Flipkart started selling khadi products of Swaraj Ashram, Kanpur.

To start with, 30 Khadi articles are available. Soon, this figure will go up to 1000,”said Ashutosh Kumar Mishra, executive, business development, Flipkart.

With Khadi branding a top priority of the Modi government, the Khadi Board has also decided to go online with all its khadi stores across the country. These stores will also now have a presence on Flipkart.

Another Indian e-tailer, Snapdeal is also all set to launch khadi products on its e-commerce platform. Recently, the company’s executives in Lucknow carried out a photo shoot of khadi products from various ashrams in Varanasi, Sitapur, Barabanki and Kanpur that is expected to be uploaded shortly on the e-tailer’s website. The photo shoot was presented before Mishra on Saturday for approval.

In addition, the MSME ministry has also planned to make khadi a source of employment in rural India through Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ campaign. Training centres for spinning khadi are being set up in villages all across the country. Those passing out from these business incubators (training centres) are being provided loans under PM’s employment generation programme to set up their own khadi spinning units.