More than 100 artisans and craftspeople registered under the PM Vishwakarma Scheme in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, have been trained in artificial intelligence tools, product branding and digital marketing. Twenty-three of them were also onboarded onto the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), giving them a route into online markets.
The one-day branding and marketing awareness programme was held on September 3 at Government Polytechnic, Somaiya Nagar, Barabanki. It was organised by the MSME-Development Office, Kanpur, under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
What the artisans were actually taught
The session was built around a simple problem: traditional makers produce well but are largely invisible online. Trainers Hrithik Raj Srivastava and Utpal Pandey demonstrated how AI tools can be applied to product branding and marketing, while Sanjay Bharti covered branding strategy and practical ways to market and sell products.
Mukesh Sharma handled the ONDC onboarding for the 23 beneficiaries. Ankita Pandey, Young Professional at the MSME-Development Office, Kanpur, walked participants through the process for claiming the next instalment of their scheme-linked loans, and entrepreneur Amaresh Kumar spoke on running a business.
On the finance and policy side, Barabanki Assistant Commissioner of Industries Ruby Jamshed explained benefits available under the PM Vishwakarma Scheme and state government initiatives. Shoaib Ansari, representing the District Manager of Bank of India, Barabanki, addressed loan procedures, the credit hurdles beneficiaries face and possible fixes. Government Polytechnic Somaiya Nagar Principal Rakhi Saini encouraged artisans to use the scheme to become self-reliant and connect their products to online markets.
Avinash Kumar Apoorv, Assistant Director at the MSME-Development Office, Kanpur, welcomed participants and set out the programme’s objectives. Mukesh Srivastava, lecturer at Government Polytechnic, Barabanki, delivered the vote of thanks.
Who was in the room
The beneficiary list is a snapshot of India’s traditional trades. Participants included:
- Doll and toy makers
- Goldsmiths and blacksmiths
- Carpenters and cobblers
- Washermen, barbers and tailors
These are categories that rarely appear in mainstream marketing conversations, yet they represent a vast base of micro-enterprises with genuine product stories and almost no distribution beyond a local radius.
Why marketers should pay attention
Three things make this worth noting beyond the district bulletin.
One, AI literacy is moving down the pyramid fast. The same generative tools that agencies use for mood boards and copy variants are now being demonstrated to blacksmiths and tailors. The cost floor for a competent-looking product listing, catalogue image or product description has effectively collapsed. Brands that competed on production polish alone will feel that.
Two, ONDC onboarding at the training-camp level is the real story. Skills without a channel go nowhere. Pairing a branding workshop with actual seller registration is the difference between an awareness event and a demand-side intervention. Expect more government skilling programmes to bundle marketplace onboarding into the curriculum.
Three, credit and marketing are being taught together. Including bank representatives and loan instalment procedures in a branding programme acknowledges something marketers often forget: for a micro-enterprise, working capital determines whether a marketing push can be fulfilled at all.
What to do with this
If you work on D2C, marketplace or rural marketing briefs, artisan clusters like Barabanki are becoming a live supply base rather than a CSR line item. Sourcing partners who are already ONDC-registered removes a large chunk of onboarding friction. For agencies, there is an opening in packaging low-cost branding toolkits — logo systems, listing templates, photo guidelines — that skilling programmes can distribute at scale.
And for students and young marketers: schemes like PM Vishwakarma are quietly creating thousands of first-time online sellers who need exactly the skills you are learning. That is a market, not a charity case.
Source: www.knnindia.co.in
