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More than one-third of the total clusters approved by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises under Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI) have become functional.
SFUTRI is meant to organise traditional industries and artisans into collectives for providing sustainable employment. Under SFURTI, traditional industries have broadly been categorised as Khadi Industries, Village Industries and Coir Industries, according to information provided by Union Minister for MSME, Narayan Rane.
Financial aid of ₹321 crore
In the last two financial years, 264 SFURTI clusters have been approved by the Ministry and as on date 152 clusters have become functional. These functional clusters, located across 21 States in the country, have received a cumulative financial assistance of ₹321 crore and support more than 90,000 artisans.
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Under Khadi Industries, any cloth woven on handlooms in India from cotton, silk or woollen yarn handspun in India or from a mixture of any two or all of such yarns is supported. It comprises manufacturing units for hand-spun and hand-woven cotton, woollen, muslin and silk varieties.
Village Industries includes any industry located in rural area which produces any goods or renders any service with or without the use of power and in which the per-capita fixed capital investment does not exceed ₹1 lakh (except for hilly areas wherein the limit is ₹1.5 lakh).
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Khadi & Village Industries represent a heritage product that is ‘ethnic’ as well as ethical. It has a potentially strong clientele among the middle and upper echelons of society.
Coir sector
Coir Industry is an agro-based traditional industry, which originated in Kerala and has now established itself in other coconut producing States like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Assam and Tripura. This industry employs more than 7 lakh persons of whom a majority is from rural areas, belonging to the economically weaker sections of society. Nearly 80 per cent of coir workers in the fibre extraction and spinning sectors are women.
Being eco-friendly with natural origin, the coir industry is an export-oriented industry and has greater potential to enhance exports by value addition through technological interventions and diversified products like coir geotextiles.
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