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Indian weaver weaves lightest silk item for Obama

08
Sep '10

A weaver of Bangalore is busy weaving world's lightest silk sari and scarf, which he intends to present to President Barak Obama to impress him, when he visits India this year.

Gurum R Narayanappa, a silk farmer has produced a silk scarf measuring one square metre which weighs just 30 grams. It took three days for the farmer and his wife to weave the scarf while using silk fibre from just two cocoons.

Both of them are now busy weaving a six meter long silk sari with gold zari which is 44 inches in width. Silk fibre from just three to four cocoons is being used to weave this sari which on completion would weigh just 70 grams.

TH Somashekhar, Former Director of Central Silk Board, stated that, both the items are supposed to be the lightest silk garments produced the world over, and they would thus approach the Guinness Book of World records for inclusion of these items.

Both these items will be presented to President Obama and is seen to enhance recognition while at the same time, boosting the image of Indian silk items in the US fashion industry. US is the biggest importer of silk products from India, but over the last few years there has been a sharp fall in silk exports to US.

As compared to previous year there was a considerable 29 percent decline in the country's silk exports to US during 2009-10, which stood at Rs. 4.17 billion, representing 14.5 percent of country's overall silk exports which totalled to Rs. 28.71 billion.

Even then, US tops India's silk export charts, while Hong Kong and UK stand second and third with 12 and 10.7 percent share in country's total silk exports.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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