Union Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh on Wednesday, 27 May 2026, highlighted record-breaking performance by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), citing a historic sales figure of ₹1,87,105 crore in financial year 2025-26 and crediting the government's 'Vocal for Local' and 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' push for the milestone.

Context

In his post, the minister stated — 'Vocal for Local ke badhte prabhav se khadi aaj gramin samridhi ka naya pratik ban chuki hai' ('With the growing influence of Vocal for Local, khadi has today become a new symbol of rural prosperity'). He pointed to the KVIC's ₹1,87,105 crore sales figure as an 'historic milestone' for the statutory body, which has been the nodal agency for promoting khadi and village industries since 1957.

The minister also highlighted performance under the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), noting that in FY26, margin money subsidies of ₹2,457 crore were disbursed against loans worth ₹7,375 crore, facilitating the opening of 66,494 new enterprises and generating employment for more than 7.31 lakh people.

Policy Backdrop

KVIC, a statutory body under the Ministry of MSME, has been a central instrument of rural industrial policy since its establishment under the Khadi and Village Industries Commission Act. After 2014, the body received renewed budgetary and policy attention, with marketing campaigns and higher allocations aimed at scaling khadi's commercial footprint.

PMEGP was launched in August 2008 by merging two earlier schemes — the Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP) and the Prime Minister's Rozgar Yojana (PMRY) — to provide credit-linked margin money subsidies for micro-enterprise creation in both rural and urban areas. The 'Vocal for Local' call, championed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from 2020 onward as part of the broader Atmanirbhar Bharat economic framework, gave renewed cultural and policy impetus to domestic products including khadi.

The Atmanirbhar Bharat package, announced in May 2020 amid pandemic disruptions, sought to strengthen domestic supply chains and reduce import dependence — with village industries and micro-enterprises positioned as key beneficiaries.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary beneficiaries of the figures cited are rural artisans, micro-entrepreneurs, and unemployed youth — the target demographics of both KVIC's production ecosystem and PMEGP's credit-subsidy architecture. If the employment figure of 7.31 lakh new jobs in a single financial year is borne out, it would represent a significant contribution to non-farm rural livelihoods.

For the khadi sector specifically, a sales figure of ₹1,87,105 crore would mark a dramatic scaling from the levels seen in the early years of the current policy push, underscoring the cumulative effect of sustained government marketing, institutional procurement mandates, and rising consumer preference for handloom and artisan products.

What's Next

Attention will now turn to the next Union Budget allocation for both KVIC and PMEGP, as well as any parliamentary committee scrutiny of the scheme performance data underlying these figures. Sustained growth in KVIC sales and PMEGP disbursements would likely inform the government's broader narrative on rural employment ahead of state assembly cycles. The minister's framing of these numbers within the 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' and 'Vocal for Local' vocabulary signals that the government intends to keep village industries central to its economic messaging through 2026 and beyond.