• One District One Product (ODOP) is an initiative which is seen as a transformational step forward towards realizing the true potential of a district, fuel economic growth and generate employment and rural entrepreneurship, taking us to the goal of AtmaNirbhar Bharat.

    • One District One Product (ODOP) initiative is operationally merged with ‘Districts as Export Hub’ initiative being implemented by DGFT, Department of Commerce, with Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) as a major stakeholder.                        

    • The Department of Commerce through DGFT is engaging with State and Central government agencies to promote the initiative of One District One Product.

    • The objective is to convert each District of the country into an Export Hub by

        ◦ identifying products with export potential in the District

        ◦ addressing bottlenecks for exporting these products

        ◦ supporting local exporters/manufacturers to scale up manufacturing

        ◦ finding potential buyers outside India

    • Under the initial phase of the ODOP programme, 106 Products have been identified from 103 districts across 27 States.

    • As far as Rajasthan is concerned, two products namely Blue Pottery (Jaipur) and Markhana Marbles (Nagaur) are among the identified 106 Products.

    • All the Districts of Rajasthan are already covered under the ‘Districts as Export Hub’ initiative. State Export Promotion Committee (SPEC) and District Export Promotion Committee (DEPC) have been constituted in Rajasthan.

    • DEPC is constituted in all Districts of India, except districts of the state of West Bengal.

    • DEPC meetings have been conducted in 510 Districts of India, Draft Export Action Plans are prepared for 451 Districts.

About ODOP

To encourage indigenous and specialized products in the state, the UP government has launched the One District One Product (ODOP) programme which aims to create product-specific traditional industrial hubs across 75 districts of UP. This is going to provide an impetus to the traditional industries across respective districts in the state. The Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi has also praised the ODOP programme describing it as “An extension of Make in India”.

The ODOP programme provides a holistic solution to the makers of the products. Making the lives of common people better, the programme is an empowering example of the country’s efforts towards Make in India initiative.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants. The views expressed here are personal.)