Stimulus packages prevented decline of handicrafts exports

10 Feb '10

4 min read

Giving an overview of the several Schemes for Handloom Sector, Thiru. Maran said that two handloom Mega clusters are being set up at Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Sibsagar in Assam and two additional mega clusters at Murshidabad in West Bengal and at Virudhnagar in Tamil Nadu will be set up in pursuance of announcement made by the Finance Minister in the budget 2009-10 under Comprehensive Handloom Cluster Development Scheme. Under this Central Sector Plan Scheme , each cluster with 25,000 looms will be developed at an financial outlay of Rs. 70 crore per cluster in five year. The Minister said that marketing support is sin-quo-non for the holistic growth and development of handlooms products. Keeping this in view , the Handloom Marketing Complex is being set up at Janpath to provide permanent market outlets to weaver to showcase their products and sell to public at large without the involvement of the middle man. The marketing events are being organized at District, State, National and International level, said the Minister.

Thiru. Maran informed the members that for the first time Handlooms week was organized throughout the country from December 21 to 27 December 2009, and henceforth this will be an annual feature. In addition, a set of 4 postage stamps on Banarasi silk, Kanchipuram sarees, Kalamkari and Apa Tani Weavers were released by the President on 10th December, 2009. This is for the first time, stamps on India textiles were issued in order to popularize the unique textiles both in India and abroad, said Thiru. Maran.

The officers of the Ministry made a presentation of various Schemes and initiative takes for the development of handicraft and handloom sectors to the Committee members during the meeting.

Smt. Panabaaka Lakshmi, Minister of State for Textiles, and Members of Parliament viz., S/Shri C. Sivasami, P. Lingam, Ramesh V. Katti, P. Vishwanathan and Moinul Hassan, and Senior Officers of Ministry of Textiles attended the meeting.

Press Information Bureau

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