New Delhi: The Ministry of Panchayati Raj in India and Khadi and Village Industry Commission (KVIC) have come together under the Rural Business Hubs (RBH) initiative to promote Khadi and village industries in rural areas by providing proper role to the Panchayats.

To this effect, the Ministry and KVIC have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the social and economic development of the rural people under this initiative.

The collaboration would help in generating rural employment, higher and sustained income for rural producers by better marketing of products through convergence of schemes and efforts of KVIC and Panchayats.

Under this initiative, Panchayats and KVIC will jointly identify potential projects that can be supported under KVIC schemes and also extend marketing support through the corporate members of industry working on the RBH initiative.

For this purpose, district level meetings will be arranged in the selected districts in which the relevant schemes will be familiarised to the Panchayats.

KVIC will also extend the services of its Rural Industries Consultancy Services (RICS) to potential beneficiaries for project formulation and linkages with banks. Such proposals will be processed through the fast track system.

Wherever required, skill development and skill upgradation training will be provided to the potential beneficiaries by KVIC through accredited training agencies.

The Ministry will facilitate the Panchayats to set up Common Facility Centres and other minor infrastructure by converging resources from various schemes.

Moreover, Panchayats will provide backward linkages in terms of identifying genuine beneficiaries for the KVIC Schemes.
—iGovernment Bureau