Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday asked people to go “local” while shopping during the ongoing festival season and also asked them in his monthly “Maan-ki-Baat” radio address to light a “diya” remembering the soldiers protecting the nation at the borders.
In his 70th radio talk, the PM reiterated his caution to people to exercise in celebrating the festivals on account of the coronavirus pandemic. “Previously, a large number of people used to gather in Durga Pandal. It was a fair-like atmosphere during Durga Puja and Dussehra, but this time it didn’t happen. Many more festivals are to be observed, we’ve to work with restraint during this corona crisis,” he said.
The PM also appealed to the citizens to light a “diya” remembering the “soldiers protecting the nation at the borders even during the festivals”.
Continuing with his focus on “atmnirbharbharat” and thereby, the need to go with “vocal for local” campaign, the PM lauded new initiatives taken up by enterprising people across the country, particularly women.
“This time when you go shopping, remember your resolve of “Vocal for Local”. When purchasing goods from the market, we have to give priority to local products,” he said.
Modi drew attention of his listeners to the popularity of local Indian products abroad and cited the example of “Khadi” that has become famous in Mexico’s Oaxaca.
“Khadi’s popularity is increasing. In many places in the world, Khadi is also being made. One such place in Mexico is Oaxaca. There are many villages in this area where the local villagers work for weaving Khadi.
“Today, the Khadi here has become famous as ‘Ohaka Khadi’,” he said in his radio address.
“Khadi has been a hallmark of simplicity for a long time, but, today, our Khadi is being known as an eco-friendly fabric. In terms of health, it is body friendly fabric, all weather fabric and today Khadi fashion statement is being made,” he said.
Continuing with his stress on innovation and developing local solutions, the PM gave the example of women in Jharkhand who created an app to deliver vegetables straight from the farm fields.
“During lockdown, many uses of technology-based service delivery have taken place in our country, and now it is no longer that only big technology and logistics companies can do this. In Jharkhand, this work has been done by women’s self-help group. These women took vegetables and fruits from the farmers’ fields and delivered them directly to their homes. These women built an app called ‘Livelihood farm fresh’ through which people could easily ask for vegetables,” Modi said.
“Through this whole effort, farmers got good prices for their vegetables and fruits, and people also got fresh vegetables. The idea of ‘livelihood farm fresh’ app is becoming very popular there. During lockdown, the app has brought fruits and vegetables worth more than 50 lakh rupees to the people”, he said.
In the same vein, Modi pointed to enterprise and experiments of people in their business to earn better livelihood and gave example of Manzoor Ahmed Ali, a woodcutter in Pulwama, Jammu & Kashmir who overcame his poverty by first making boxes of apples and then starting business of pencil manufacturing.
“Manzoor found this very beneficial and his income also started increasing significantly. With time he bought a pencil slate manufacturing machinery and after that he started supplying pencil slate to the big companies of the country. Today, his business turnover is in crores and they are also giving livelihood to about two hundred people,” the PM said explaining a wood-cutter’s success story by sheet dint of enterprise and hard work.
Modi referred to the new farm laws which allow contract farming saying youth are seeing new possibilities in the agriculture sector and “joining in large numbers.”
“Atul Patidar has digitally connected 4,000 farmers of his region in Barwani, Madhya Pradesh. These farmers are getting agricultural goods, for example, manure, seeds, pesticide, fungicide at home delivery through Atul Patidar’s e-platform. Modern agricultural equipment is also available on this digital platform,” he said.
Talking of local innovation, the PM also spoke about Tamil Nadu man who converted his salon into a library.
“During Mann Ki Baat today, we will get to know about an interesting person- Ponmariappan from Tamil Nadu. He has a very small salon where he has done exemplary work. He has converted a small portion of his salon into a library,” said Modi.