EPCH (Export promotion council for Handicrafts) honored 68 handicraft companies across nation and launched Handicrafts & Carpet Sector Skill Council (HCSSC) in Delhi. Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Union Minister of State for Textiles (I/C) and Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (I/C) handed over the awards to exporters. Awards for the year of 2012-13 were based on export performance. S P Dadoo, Ravish Khanna, Amarchand Ahuja were given life time achievement award for their outstanding contribution to the promotion of handicrafts exports. In soft goods or textile based handicraft category, Gotam Lal Bansal of Kavitra Export, Karan Ahuja, Ahujasons Shawl Wale, Amit Malhotra of Asian Handicrafts, Shiva Hemdev of Sri Devi Exportrs was honored with few others. Santosh Kumar Gangwar congratulated the winners and motivated to carry forward as the handicraft industry has a lot of scope. Rajiv Pratap Rudy explained the initiatives of his minister and said that skill is something where India is lacking compare to developed countries and a lot of work need to be done on it. Rakesh Kumar, ED, Lekhraj Maheshwari, Chairman, EPCH throw light on the efforts and achievements of EPCH. S K panda, Secretary, Textile Samir Kumar Biswas. DC (Handicrafts), Dileep Baid, Chairman of (HCSSC) was also present in the event.
