The second edition of Home Expo India opened recently
Panabaaka lakshmi, Union Minister of State for Textiles, declared open the four-day-long second edition of the premium home and lifestyle products show Home Expo India 2013 (HEI 2013) organised by the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) in a colourful ceremony at the world class venue of India Expo Centre and Mart.
While inaugurating the mega triple show, the Minister said that “handicrafts is highly promising sector which has great importance in the Indian economy not only for foreign exchange earner but as an employment generative sector. Therefore, Ministry of Textiles attaches considerable importance to this sector.”
“The initiative of EPCH to organise Home Expo India covering the three promising products segments — Indian Furnishing, Flooring and Textiles show, Indian Furniture and Accessories Show and Indian Houseware and Decorative Show — is a step in the right direction to enable focus buyers to see focus products without wasting their time, energy and resources in hunting specific requirement amongst the vast array of products”, the Minister added.
Ministry of Textiles and Office of the Development Commissioner (Handicrafts) have also been laying emphasis on development and promotion of production clusters in the country which have growth and export potential and also have a pool of craftsmanship.
lakshmi further said that “many new production clusters have already been notified by Ministry of Textiles and suitable grants have been earmarked for development of such clusters for the ultimate product development for export in the country by laying emphasis on quality, production techniques etc besides fulfilling international statutory compliances.”
The Minister lauded the role of EPCH for laying special focus on specialities of select regions of India with separate pavilions of products from North Eastern Region (NER) such as cane and bamboo and from Jammu & Kashmir products like wood carving, crewel embroidery, shawls, hand-knotted carpets and rugs. Alongwith two separate theme pavilions of NER and J&K, Tribal Crafts of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha are also being displayed.
Ministry of Textiles is prepared to extend its full support to organisation like EPCH, exporting community and product clusters in terms of obtaining finance, technical know-how, design development for viable product for enviable regions, she said.
The Minister was of the view that regular display of products from these clusters during the product specific shows will have definite impact on the progress of handicrafts from the point of view that buyers coming to visit such show will be having opportunity to see the exquisite craftsmanship of these regions.
Zohra Chatterji, Secretary (Textiles), SS Gupta, Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), Alka Arora, Addl Development Commissioner (Handicrafts) and other dignitaries from central and state government were also present to grace the occasion.
The most important aspect of Home Expo India is the confirmation from large number of top buyers, buying houses, import houses, chain stores, boutique owners and interior decorators from leading markets like USA, European Union, Far East, latin America, Central Asia and African continents to visit and source at this show, informed Babu lal Dosi, President of Home Expo India 2013.
Earlier, in his welcoming address, EPCH Chairman Arvind Vadhera said that the Council has been organising the Indian Handicrafts & Gifts Fair for more than a decade now, decided to set up product specific highly segmented show on such product groups which have great potential for developing and diversifying exports from India. In the past few years, it was seen that home products are receiving large attention from the foreign buyers.
About 1200 companies including mart owners are participating in this show and bringing the variety and diversity of Indian products covering three sectors from different parts of the country making it attractive for the foreign buyers.
An important highlight of the Home Expo India will be professional seminars scheduled on “Increased sales all wrapped up — packing for handicrafts products and latest design, trends, colours and patterns.”
Experts will have discussions with the participating companies on these subjects. The exports of home furnishing accessories, floor coverings and furniture etc have shown consistent growth during the last few years. The exports of furniture and accessories has grown 46.25 per cent, houseware and decorative items by 20.32 per cent and home furnishing, flooring and home textiles by 25.12 per cent during the year 2012-13 over the previous year, Vadhera said.
EPCH is the nodal export promotion body for handicrafts in India an plays an important role of a catalyst between the exporters, buyers and the Government with the main objective of boosting trade in handicrafts and also project India’s image in the global market as a reliable supplier.