Shyamhari Chakra
Bhubaneswar: India’s leading home-grown e-commerce company Flipkart’s Samarth initiative launched in seven Indian states has brought cheers for the millions of artisans, crafts persons and weavers of the country during the ongoing pandemic-affected gloomy days.
An estimated seven million people are engaged directly in this sector that has been the second major source of livelihood for rural India after farming. With the pandemic spreading like forest fire and resulting in cancellation of hundreds of fairs, festivals, exhibitions apart from closure of all tourism activities, the sale of their products have come to a grinding halt; thereby robbing millions of their daily bread.
Flipkart-Samarth initiative aims at bringing India’s artisans, weavers and handicrafts producers on to the e-commerce platform with the much required viable business module of networking-cataloguing-warehousing-marketing to reach out to millions of prospective buyers across India, explains the Bengaluru-based company.
Under the initiative, Flipkart ties up with government and reputed non-government organisations to reach out to the large number of rural entrepreneurs in order to select and market their products. Preference is offered to women and differently-abled entrepreneurs who lack sound financial background, infrastructure and training.
So far, Flipkart-Samarth initiative has covered the states of Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Karnataka, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
While Jharkraft and Khadi-Jharkhand have been roped in for Jharkhand state, Khadi and Village Industries Board has been its partner for Uttar Pradesh. Similarly, Gujarat State Handloom and Handicraft Development Corporation and Punjab Bureau of Investment Promotion have signed up MOUs with Flipkart for the respective states.
The three states to sign the MOU with Flipkart this month have been Karnataka, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
Karnataka’s two best known brands – Cauvery (of Karnataka Handicrafts Development Corporation) and Priyadarshini (of Karnataka Handlooms Development Corporation) – have come under the Samarth scheme.
Similarly, Odisha’s State Institute for Development of Arts & Crafts (SIDAC) has been the nodal agency to promote products of the government’s top brands – Boyanika, Utkalika and Sambalpuri Bastralaya – through the initiative.
Andhra Pradesh, the latest state to embrace Flipkart-Samarth initiative through an MOU with Andhra Pradesh Skill Development Corporation, has brought 13 of its districts under the scheme.
