Sustained efforts of Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) to strengthen Indian Agarbatti industry have begun yielding results with Assam leading the way. On Thursday, Minister of MSME Nitin Gadkari through video conference inaugurated a major Bamboo Agarbatti Stick making unit named “Keshari Bio Products LLP” at Bajali district in Assam. Chief Minister of Assam,  Sarbananda Sonowal and KVIC Chairman  Vinai Kumar Saxena were present on the occasion.

The unit is a major step in the direction of “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” and an apt example of “Waste to Wealth” as apart from making Agarbatti sticks, it utilizes a huge quantity of waste bamboo into making bio-fuel and various other products. Set up at a cost of Rs 10 crore, the Agarbatti stick unit will provide direct employment to 350 people while also creating over 300 indirect employment.

These units in Assam assume great significance in wake of the Modi Government’s decision of restriction on import of raw agarbatti from China and Vietnam and also a hike in import duty on round bamboo sticks for agarbatti. The two decisions were taken to curb the huge import of agarbatti and bamboo sticks from the two countries that had crippled the Indian agarbatti industries.

Gadkari and the THE KVIC Chairman had made great efforts to curb the import of these two commodities. As a result, hundreds of closed Agarbatti manufacturing units in India were revived in the last one and half years creating nearly 3 lakh new jobs. Keshari Bio Products LLP is the first big project that has come up after these policy decisions.

Gadkari expressed happiness over the new bamboo stick unit in Assam saying this would go a long way in strengthening the local Agarbatti industry which has a huge potential for local employment creation. “This is the most appropriate example of “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” which aims at creating local employment and sustainable livelihood,” Shri Gadkari said. The Hon’ble Chief Minister also praised the initiative saying this manufacturing unit would create new employment avenues in the entire state.

The KVIC Chairman Saxena said the import restriction on raw agarbatti and hike in import duty on bamboo agarbatti sticks created a huge employment opportunity in India.