The first day of the two-day international seminar on Promotion of Indian Handicrafts and Craft Exchange Programme was inaugurated by the Union Minister of State for textiles Panabaka lakshmi at Hotel Ashok.
The event was organised by Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) and National Centre for Design and Product Development (NCDPD) under the aegis of Office of Development Commissioner (Handicrafts). International experts in the field of technology and craft along with craftsmen and artisans from China, Ireland, Japan, Philippines and Vietnam along with their Indian peers were present. SS Gupta, Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), David Rasquinha, Executive Director, EXIM Bank of India had also graced the occasion. lR Maheshwari, Chairman, EPCH, Rakesh Kumar, Executive Director EPCH and RK Srivastava, Executive Director NCDPD were also present during the inauguration of International seminar.
Over 550 participants from India and abroad are attending the international seminar. While speaking at the seminar, Minister Panabaka lakshmi explained the problems of Indian handicrafts and efforts to be made to remove the bottlenecks and measures to be adopted for improvement in the areas like design and product development, production techniques, enhancing the skill development and appreciated the O/o Development Commissioner (Handicrafts) for arranging the international seminar and craft exchange programme.
Development Commissioner (Handicrafts) also stressed on the importance of Indian handicrafts sector as it provides employment to more than 7 million artisans and craftpersons and indirect employment to many more.
Rakesh Kumar, ED, EPCH stressed upon the importance of conducting this kind of international seminar where experts on the technology upgradation, customer oriented design and product development, skill enhancement and market linkages, both national and international, share their experience with Indian counterparts for the benefits of persons related to handicrafts sector.
He also mentioned that craft exchange programme of master craftpersons from India and craftpersons and experts from Vietnam, Ireland, Japan, Thailand and China will be imparting knowledge to each other in the field of design and product development and this would lead for better understanding on complexity of production and exports of Indian handicrafts.
On the second day of the International seminar, KS Rao, Union Minister of Textiles addressed the international experts, craftspersons and participants from India.