Chief Secy reviews promotion of J&K Handicrafts & Handloom sector

Jammu, Apr 24: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo Wednesday reviewed the performance of Handicrafts & Handloom Department regarding the promotion of these sectors here in the UT.
The meeting besides Commissioner Secretary, I&C was attended by MD, TPO; Director, H&H Kashmir/Jammu, Executive Director, EDI and other concerned officers from the Department.
While speaking in this meeting the Chief Secretary emphasized on enhancing the capacity of the Department for introducing technology to bring innovation in designing and development of creative content. He remarked that this sector has an immense scope to prosper if the Department is able to put in place the mechanism to ascertain the genuineness of the Handicraft items.
Dulloo made out that enhancing the capacities to test bulk of the products should be our aim. He asked for developing a robust quality control system for adding more value to such products in the international market.
He took this occasion to advise the officers to carryout a comprehensive study for proper branding of our products which eventually would translate into increase in their export to other countries. He also asked for connecting to artisans for making useful interventions as desired by the people working on ground.
He also called for increasing their activities of participation in national exhibitions and shows to promote this sector all over the world. He observed that this sector is closely knit with the augmentation in tourist flow to the UT.
While explaining about the achievements of the Department, the Commissioner Secretary, I&C, Vikramjit Singh informed the meeting that they had taken plethora of measures to engage with the local artisans here. He revealed that with the Department there are around 60 crafts registered having 3.8 lakh artisans associated with them.
He also revealed that 7 new crafts had also been recognized by the Department on the demand of its artisans which opened doors for them to avail benefits under different government schemes.
In the presentation, the Director, H&H Kashmir, Mehmood Shah highlighted that J&K has secured GI tag for 10 of its crafts. He also divulged that 12 more are in pipeline at various stages to be granted this tag in future.
The meeting also discussed the presence of training centres in different parts of J&K where 20,386 candidates had been trained in the past 3 years. The meeting also held threadbare discussions on the performance registered under the schemes like Artisan Credit Card Scheme, Karkhandar Scheme, PM Mudra Scheme, development of clusters besides other activities carried out by the Department from time to time.