Tribal marketing body signs MoUs to expand online presence, boost tribal livelihoods

The Union Minister of Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda said that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and TRIFED are working on a war footing to bring about social and economic empowerment of tribal people through a large number of such initiatives.

New Delhi: In a bid to expand its online presence, the Tribal Co-operative Marketing Federation of India (TRIFED) is tying up with online grocery store Big Basket and has signed an MoU for the same. TRIFED has also entered into an MoU with Purty Agrotech of Jharkhand for entrepreneurship development of tribals in pearl farming across the country.

The Union Minister of Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda has said, “The government is taking up ambitious transformational programmes which will prove to be game-changer for the tribal livelihoods in times to come”. Munda was speaking at the onboarding of two major initiatives for boosting tribal livelihoods, one with the signing of MoU between TRIFED and Big Basket and the other of MoU between TRIFED and Purty Agrotech of Jharkhand in New Delhi today.

Speaking on the occasion, the Minister added, "As we celebrate Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, it is the vision of the Prime Minister that we reach out to the person at the last mile and work towards establishing an Atmanirbhar Bharat."

He further remarked that it is in this spirit that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and TRIFED are working on a war footing to bring about social and economic empowerment of tribal people through a large number of such initiatives.

The MoU between TRIFED and Big Basket is for the promotion and sale of the natural Van Dhan products through the Big Basket platform while the MoU between TRIFED and Purty Agrotech will promote the art of growing pearls among other tribal entrepreneurs across India and tap the potential of this market.

Speaking at the occasion, Pravir Krishna, Managing Director of TRIFED said that TRIFED is working day and night to find new and better marketing opportunities both domestically and internationally for the unique tribal products and minor forest produce. He further added that these two new initiatives will become operational from 2nd October this year and will give a new thrust to tribal livelihoods.