Union Minister of Commerce and Industry and Textiles Piyush Goyal has insisted on putting multiple efforts to promote handloom.
Addressing 8th National Handloom Day, a function organised by the Ministry of Textiles, the Minister said that there is a need to put the census data of handlooms of over 35 lakh handloom workers in the public domain for transparency and validation so that the benefits of handloom schemes reach the genuine beneficiaries.
He stressed upon the need to connect weavers and artisans with a greater clientele with both domestic and international customers.
Stating that the e-commerce initiatives should be utilised to the fullest, the Minister said the emphasis should be onboarding of handloom weavers and handicraft artisans on GeM portal in large numbers, while simultaneously making it incumbent upon all Government. departments to purchase handloom products for all their textile needs.
For this, he urged the Ministries of Commerce, Industry and Textiles to join hands to facilitate the process.
Minister of Textiles asked for organising a large-scale exhibition involving all awardees of handlooms and handicraft since inception of the awards to celebrate their achievement, and inspire others to emulate them.
On the occasion, five Design Resource Centres at Indore, Kolkata, Nagpur, Meerut and Panipat were inaugurated. 82 Sant Kabir and National handloom Awards were also given away.
Darshana Vikram Jardosh, Minister of State for Textiles, UP Singh, Secretary (Textiles) and Sanjay Rastogi, Development Commissioner (Handlooms) were also present in the function.