To Help Students Get Internship Opportunities, AICTE Ties with Khadi & Village Industries Commission (KVIC)

Image credits - Khadi India@Twitter

AICTE Joins Hands with Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) to help students get internship opportunities and build entrepreneurial skills towards Atmanirbhar Bharat

• Students of BTech and MTech can avail internship.
• KVIC will pay students Rs.5000/= month during the internship period.
• KVIC is also going to roll out a scholarship programme for researchers.

The All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) announced its association with Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) with an aim to provide students (UG and PG) with internship opportunities and build entrepreneurial skills.

The programme was started with welcome address of dignitaries by Dr Amit Kumar Srivastava, Director, Student Development Cell, AICTE New Delhi. Prof. Anil D Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE, and Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena, Chairman, KVIC, announced the partnership during a webinar that was organised today by AICTE. The webinar was organised with an aim to understand the role of KVIC in making India and its villages self-reliant and how faculty members of the AICTE and the students can become entrepreneurs at a local level and provide employment to thousands of skilled and unskilled labour in the vicinity.

For internship opportunities, students can get in touch with KVIC state/ divisional offices and on selection will get to work across different departments of their interest. Additionally, the internship opportunities with KVIC will also be uploaded on AICTE internship portal. Under the programme, the students will also be paid a stipend of Rs. 5,000/ month during the internship period. KVIC is also planning to roll out a scholarship programme for students to undertake research projects on its multiple schemes.

Shri. Vinai Kumar Saxena, Chairman, KVIC, addressing the webinar

Commenting during the webinar, Prof. Anil D Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE, said: “I am delighted to announce our partnership with KVIC would benefit our students. KVIC draws inspiration from Gandhi Ji. We talk about Atmanirbhar Bharat and it shall become Atmanirbhar in true sense when all the villages, talukas, districts, and states become self-reliant. That’s why Gandhi Ji always talked about Gram Swaraj. Today India is a giant in the ITES industry. Now time has come to ensure how we can help villages through ITES and make them more self-reliant and promote entrepreneurship.”

An elated Shri. Vinai Kumar Saxena, Chairman, KVIC, said that the internship programme will help students gain valuable experience through challenging projects. “KVIC has a lot of platforms through which students can connect. I will urge all the faculty members and the students to work towards the upliftment of the country through the multiple schemes that KVIC runs across the country. KVIC has always taken on challenging initiatives. I will urge students not to think too much about being job takers but believe in becoming job givers through their entrepreneurial skills,” said Mr. Saxena. Detailing the process, Mr. Saxena said that interested students can reach out to KVIC State/ Divisional offices in different cities for internship opportunities.

"KVIC is offering a project for internship for all the students. The students can gain access to different departments of KVIC be it marketing or manufacturing as per their interest. The students will be paid a stipend of Rs.5000/month during the internship period. We are also planning to roll out a scholarship programme for research scholars who would work on different projects and schemes of KVIC," Mr. Saxena added.

At the end of programme, vote of thanks was delivered by Ms. Sanju Chaudhary, Assistant Director, Student Development Cell, AICTE New Delhi.

Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal to Remove 160 Fake Khadi Products Online

Khadi and Village Industries Commission’s (KVIC) firmness has forced e-commerce portals like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal and others to remove over 160 web links selling products in the brand name of “Khadi”. In a statement today, KVIC has said that the development comes in wake of KVIC serving legal notices to over 1000 firms using the brand name “Khadi India” to sell their products and thus causing damage to its reputation and the loss of work to Khadi artisans.

It further said that after KVIC served legal notice, Khadi Global has also discontinued using its website www.khadiglobalstore.com and also removed its social media pages on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and have sought 10-day time to remove all such contents and product using the brand name “Khadi”. KVIC action has also resulted in shutting down a number of stores across the country that were selling fake Khadi products.

These e-commerce portals were selling products like Khadi masks, herbals soaps, shampoos, cosmetics, herbal mehandi, jackets, kurta and many such products through different sellers using the brand name “Khadi”. This created a false impression among online buyers that these commodities were genuine “Khadi” products. KVIC also stated that a majority of the products that have been removed were being sold by one Ayush E-Traders. This firm has confirmed to KVIC that it has removed 140 links for various products that were being sold as “Vagad’s Khadi Products”.

It further stated that there has been a steep rise in violation of Khadi trademark as the popularity of Khadi grew manifold in recent years after the Prime Minister’s appeal to buy Khadi products. Exploiting this opportunity, a number of online sellers began selling random products in the name of Khadi. Also hundreds of stores mushroomed in different cities that were selling fake Khadi products. 

In recent months, particularly during the Covid-19 lockdown, there was a huge proliferation of such fraudulent online sellers. However, to enable online customers to buy genuine Khadi products, KVIC has launched its e-portal selling a range of 300 products online at www.kviconline.gov.in/khadimask.
KVIC Chairman Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena said the KVIC has given violators the option of either stop selling products in the name of Khadi or legal action will be initiated for recovery of heavy damages. “Legal notices have been issued to various firms essentially to safeguard the interest of Khadi artisans. This trademark violation has a direct bearing on the livelihood of our artisans who are making genuine handcrafted products,” Saxena said.

KVIC has put in place a robust online enforcement plan for effective monitoring of “Khadi India” trademark rights. It has employed a dedicated legal team, a mix of human and technological tools to ensure a systematic and continuous monitoring and takedown of unauthorised products being sold in the name of Khadi.

KVIC is also educating all registered Khadi Institutions engaged in manufacturing Khadi products that simply their registration with KVIC did not authorize them to re-authorize any one to use “Khadi” trademarks or “Khadi India” logo unless that firm or company obtains proper licence from KVIC for the same.

Last month, KVIC had issued legal notices to two firms Khadi Essentials and Khadi Global for unauthorizedly selling cosmetics and other products in the name of Khadi. The statement added that KVIC has also sought damages to the tune of Rs 500 crore from Fabindia which is pending before the Mumbai High Court.