Status of agro and rural industries under SEZ

New Delhi, July 28 (UNI) Minister of Small Scale Industries and Agro and Rural Industries Mahabir Prasad today informed the Rajya Sabha that the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005 provides for establishment of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) for export of products and services.

The Minister said that such SEZs can be multi-product/services or sector-specific and can thus include agro and rural industry products.

Agro and rural industry units in SEZs are eligible for the same incentives and facilities as available to other product-specific or multi-product/service SEZs, he added.

On the declining employment of spinners and weavers, Mr Prasad said that employment of spinners and weavers of khadi, which declined during 1996-97 to 2004-05, has shown improvement since then.

Spinning and weaving of khadi and further production processes are carried out by khadi institutions which are autonomous bodies, generally registered as societies and organisations like the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) and the State/Union Territory Khadi and Village Industries Boards (KVIBs) concerned.

Paucity of funds with the khadi institutions for replacing outdated charkhas and looms, inadequate attention to production and sales planning, particularly product quality and marketability, weak working capital position of these institutions due to high unsold stocks and non-payment of rebate in time were some the reasons for the decline of employment in the khadi sector.

Regarding Mission Khadi, the Minister informed that the KVIC started implementation of the ''Mission Khadi'' in 2005-06 with the aims of gradually increasing the production of ready-to-use/wear khadi products, standardising these products, selling them under a common brand and assisting this process by establishing common facility centres to service small khadi institutions.

Mr Prasad made it clear that Mission Khadi targets both domestic (rural as well as urban) and international consumers.

UNI BBS PV DS1410