Lucknow, Oct 31 (IANS): Nearly 2 crore 'One District-One Product' (ODOP) items, worth around Rs 1,000 crore, have been sold on e-commerce platform Flipkart, benefitting lakhs of small artisans and crafts persons in Uttar Pradesh.

Even as marketplaces remained largely closed during 2020-21 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, e-commerce websites played a crucial role in ensuring that a link between the markets and consumers remained active.

Uttar Pradesh MSME Minister Sidharth Nath Singh said the government had tied up with e-commerce websites to provide a wider platform for ODOP products, including an international market under which products, like Kala Namak rice, were being sold internationally.

"Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mantra of vocal for local, e-commerce websites have proved to be highly beneficial, especially during the pandemic where more people had shifted to online marketplaces. Lakhs of workers under the ODOP scheme, a flagship programme of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, launched in 2018, have benefitted vastly from this," Singh said.

The government had signed an MoU with Flipkart in 2020 to sell ODOP products on the website, having earlier tied up with e-commerce website Amazon. More than 20,000 products under ODOP are sold across the platforms.

The ODOP scheme was launched in 2018 with the aim of identifying one special product from each district so that it could be promoted, packaged and marketed better to boost the industry and help artisans.

Currently, there are some districts where more than one product is being promoted by the government.