TRIFED under Ministry of Tribal Affairs works for the promotion of tribal commerce in the best interests of almost 50 lakh forest dwelling tribal families aligning them to their skill sets, ensuring a fair deal to tribals in their trade of Minor Forest Produces, and Handlooms and Handicrafts. The value of this trade according to a NITI study is almost Rs 2 lakh crores per annum. To scale up the activities and create a level playing field, TRIFED has embarked on a digitisation drive to map and link its village based tribal producers to the national and international markets setting up state of art e- platforms benchmarked to international standards.

The digital transformation strategy includes a state of art website (https://trifed.tribal.gov.in/); setting up of an e-Market Place for Tribal Artisans to trade and directly market their produces; digitisation of all information related to the forest dwellers engaged in its VanDhan Yojana, village haats and warehouses to which they are linked. Keeping every aspect of tribal lives and commerce in mind, TRIFED has also embarked on the digitisation of the procurement of MFPs through government and private trade and the related payments to tribals. This is likely to be commissioned by August end.

“It is now well accepted that e-commerce is the future of retail trade. A large majority of people have adopted online shopping in India. TRIFED has to strategically respond to the emerging situation. It is in this context that the digitisation strategy has been formulated.” said Pravir Krishna, Managing Director TRIFED.

The TRIFED website https://trifed.tribal.gov.in/ offers all information related to the organisation, it’s schemes of tribal welfare. The site is a platform to connect and collaborate in the mission to empower the tribal communities across the country in a two way communication and information exchange mode linked via a GIS platform.

The business arm of TRIFED, Tribes India has launched an e-commerce portal, https://www.tribesindia.com/, which offers a large range of tribal products online. These products range from creative masterpieces and artefacts such as Dokra metal craft pieces, beautiful pottery, different types of paintings to colourful, comfortable apparel, distinctive jewellery and organic and natural foods and beverages.

TRIFED has also partnered with other e-commerce portals such as Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal and PayTM to provide market access to its tribal artisans. Tribes India products are also now available on GeM to facilitate purchases by Government. Government Departments Ministries and PSUs can access TRIBES India products via Government e-Marketplace (GeM) and shop as per GFR regulations.

The Tribes India e-Marketplace, coming on the heels of the Retail Inventory Management System which has automated the sourcing and sale of stocks, is an ambitious initiative to on board almost 5 lakh Tribal Artisans on the e- market platform to provide them access to national and international markets. This is likely to be commissioned by end August 2020.

TRIFED’s Van Dhan Integrated Information Network facilitates the pooling of all information pertaining to forest dwellers engaged in Minimum Support Price Operations and its Van Dhan Yojana linking them up to Village haats and Warehouses. This helps in monitoring the country wide programme and taking decisions to facilitate smooth implementation. This scheme has been implemented in 22 States touching the lives of almost 10 lac tribal households. The tribal clusters identified and mapped across the country are eligible beneficiaries under Atmanirbhar Abhiyan. The aim is to work in convergence with various Ministries and agencies and help bring the benefits to these vulnerable and distressed communities. TRIFED is equipped to advocate and support the tribal cause under Atmanirbhar Abhiyan.

In an automation drive for its internal MIS, TRIFED has also made significant progress in the past year by moving to the following systems :- Legal Information Management Business System (LIMBS) from Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India;  Centralised Finance system (Tally); and Human Resource Management System put in place by Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India.

In times of these distressed periods, digital transformation across the entire organisation only seems to be a viable path to ensure livelihoods are not disrupted.

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NB/SK/MoTA/25.06.2020