Speed Post News Network
New Delhi : National Bamboo Mission (NBM) has launched an MIS (Management Information Systems) based reporting platform for agarbatti stick production to collate the locations of stick making units, availability of raw material, functioning of the units, production capacity, marketing, etc.
With the help of this module, the linkages with the industry will be synergised better to enable seamless procurement from production units and information gaps can be plugged. All NBM States are in the process of documenting all the units to assess better how further support can be given for ‘Vocal for Local’ and ‘Make for the World’ since Indian agarbatti are much sought after in global markets, according to a PIB release
National Bamboo Mission (NBM), Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) schemes as well as States, together with industry partners have stepped up focused support to enable India to become Atma Nirbhar in the agarbatti sector, to bring back livelihoods for the local communities while at the same time modernising the sector too.
The agarbatti sector traditionally provided largescale employment to the local workforce, which however dwindled due to various factors including the ingress of cheap imports of round sticks and raw batti. A comprehensive study was carried out by NBM in 2019 following which policy measures taken by the Government of moving raw batti imports from free to restricted category in August 2019 and increasing import duty on round stick uniformly to 25% in June 2020 came as a boost to the domestic units.
Background of NBM : The restructured National Bamboo Mission (NBM) was launched in 2018-19 for holistic development of the bamboo sector through a cluster-based approach in a hub (industry) and spoke model to harness the opportunities by providing backward and forward linkages to the stakeholders – linking farmers to markets. There is a huge potential to place Indian bamboo products in the domestic as well as global markets with the latest technologies, modern processing and by generating awareness on compliance requirements for destination countries. Direct subsidy of 50% is given to farmers at Rs 1.00 lakh per ha, 100% to Government agencies and also to entrepreneurs for setting up various product development units, etc. The Mission is presently being executed by 21 States including all the 9 States of NER through the respective State Bamboo Missions.