Khadi and village industries commission(KVIC) AND Coir Board are implementing a scheme caleed Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI) which aims at inducing dynamism in clusters of traditional coir industries, across the country over a period of five years. Various initiatives will aim at upgrading traditional skills, introducing improved technologies and processes, and strengthening the local governance system to make the traditional coir industries market-driven, productive, profitable and thus competitive

Under the revamped SFURTI, there aree three types of clusters involving artisans from 500 to 250:

The three types of clusters are Heritage (having 1,000 to 2,500 artisans); Major cluster (500-1,000 artisans) and Mini clusters having upto 500 artisans. The time frame for the implementation of the project for each cluster will be three years and the funding pattern under the scheme has provision for soft interventions including skill training, capacity building, design development, etc.

Besides, it also has provision for hard interventions including Common Facility Centres, Raw Material Banks (RMB), training centres and cross cutting thematic interventions which include brand building & promotion, news media marketing, e-commerce, innovation, R&D initiatives and developing linkages between clusters.

Objectives of the Scheme

The objectives of the Scheme are:

(i) to develop clusters of traditional industries in various parts of the country over a period of five years commencing 2005-06;

(ii) to make traditional industries more competitive with more market-driven, productive, profitable and sustained employment for traditional industry artisans and rural entrepreneurs;

(iii) to strengthen the local governance systems of industry clusters, with the active participation of the local stakeholders, so that they are enabled to undertake development initiatives by themselves; and

(iv) to build up innovated and traditional skills, improved technologies, advanced processes, market intelligence and new models of public-private partnerships, so as to gradually replicate similar models of cluster-based regenerated traditional industries. For further information visit:

http://www.kviconline.gov.in/