New Delhi: The Union Minister for Tribal Affairs, Shri Jual Oram launched ‘e-Tribes:Tribes India’, an initative for digital commerce at Tribes India Outlet at Mahadev Road, New Delhi today. It included launch of e-commerce portal of TRIFED, www.tribesindia.com and M-commerce, android app ‘Tribes India’. In a path breaking initiative, the Minister also launched the Tribes India banner on Snapdeal, Amazon, Paytm and GeM for marketing of Tribal Products through these e-commerce portals. With this, more than 55 thousand tribal artisans connected to TRIFED will get access to local as well as International markets. The Minister of State for Tribal affairs, Shri Jaswantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor and the Minister of State for Tribal affairs, Shri Sudarshan Bhagat and senior officers of the Ministry were also present on the occasion.
Congratulating TRIFED for a sterling performance in retail sales during the current financial year 2017-18, Shri Jual Oram commended the dedicated team of officers for promoting e-commerce for tribal artisans, which will provide a window to National & International markets. TRIBES India has now started marketing tribal handicrafts on e-commerce portals namely, Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal and GeM, which will prove to be a game changer for tribal artisans, the Minister explained. The organisation has set up an ambitious retail sales target of Rs. 100 crores to be achieved during the year 2018-19 which is hoped to be achieved with the help of e-commerce. The Minister stated that no stone should be left un-turned in empowerment of tribals through trade and all steps be taken to ensure that they get full and timely payments.
The Minister also lauded TRIFED for organising Aadi Mahotsavas in Delhi, Jaipur, Bhopal, Ranchi, Chandigarh and Guwahati, where almost 20,000 tribal artisans had the opportunity to directly link up with big markets and achieve sales of almost Rs. 5.00 crores. Each tribal artisan earned between Rs. 2.00 lakhs to Rs. 15 lakhs.
It was a matter of satisfaction that the Minimum Support Price and Value Addition Scheme for Minor Forest Produces has now been extended to 19 States and that Value Addition has been given high priority. TRIFED has set a target for setting up of 30,000 Value Addition Centres in rural areas in conjunction with Ministry of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj during the year 2018-19. Shri Jual Oram said that all efforts be made to take this programme to the next level, which included strengthening of Haat Bazar infrastructure including creation of network of a procurement centres, Godowns and other logistic support systems. Pricing of Minor Forest Produces need to be carefully done so that tribals can get best price for their products. The government will give grants to TRIFED to help expand its activities.
The Minister of State for Tribal affairs, Shri Jaswantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor commended the efforts of team TRIFED, who had in a short period of time achieved remarkable results in terms of sales and other activities undertaken.
The Minister of State for Tribal affairs, Shri Sudarshan Bhagat stated that the launch of e-commerce site will help to eliminate intermediaries & bring artisans directly in touch with buyers.
The event during the evening also included launching of the retail inventory software prepared by TRIFED, wherein all sales and procurement would be digitized. TRIFED will not accept manual information from its Offices with effect from 1st April, 2018.
TRIFED has prepared a hand book for its retail trade namely “Aadi Vyapar” to institutionalise the sale and procurement operations. This was also launched by the Honble Minister during the programme.
TRIFED has started the publication of a quarterly News Magazine “TRIBES HAAT” to provide information to all its stake holders and customers about its activities and to attract them to be partners in the tribal development strategy. Hon’ble Minister launched the Magazine, which will be circulated to around 5000 business leaders both in Government and Private Sector for information sharing and feedback.
A highlight of the evening was the signing of MoUs with NRDC and NCDC for improving Research & Development Component of TRIFED and tribal training in the organisation. A special training module is also being prepared in consultation with NSDA, Ministry of Skill Development, Government of India to streamlining the training and linking it to provision of gainful employment in future to tribal trainees. A tribes factory outlet was also opened at the venue by the Tribal Affairs Minister. ‘Tribal Exotica’, a new brand of high quality tribal products was also launched.
Managing Director, TRIFED, Shri Pravir Krishna said that TRIFED will make all efforts to expand the sale of tribal products through e-commerce. Around 250 Aadi-Mahotsava exhibitions are also proposed to be held in the next year, Shri Pravir Krishna disclosed.
