The government has constituted a committee headed by Sunil Sethi, chairman, Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), New Delhi, to suggest a roadmap to achieve the twin targets of doubling production, quadrupling exports of handloom textiles in the next three years.
This follows the announcement made on the occasion of National Handloom Day on 7 August 2021 for doubling the production and quadrupling the exports of handlooms in a span of 3 years.
The committee with following composition is constituted to suggest a roadmap to achieve these targets:
The committee, with Sunil Sethi, chairman, FDCI, New Delhi as its chairman, has Sudha Dhingra (Professor, NIFT, New Delhi), Shefali Vaidya (Freelance writer, Pune), Anagha Gaisas (Owner, Saudamini Handlooms, Pune), Suket Dhir (Fashion Designer, New Delhi), Sunil Alagh (MD, SKA Advisors Pvt Ltd & Former MD and CEO of Britannia Industries Ltd, Mumbai), KN Prabhu (Paradigm International, Karur), Hetal R Mehta (Chairman, Science Engineering & Technological Upliftment Foundation (SETU), Surat) as members.
Zonal directors, Manoj Jain and S Bandyopadhyay will be associated with the committee to facilitate in providing necessary inputs.
The committee will suggest the strategy and policy framework for doubling production and improving quality of handloom products with the aim of enhancing income of the weavers.
The committee will suggest ways of partnering and collaboration of handloom weavers agencies with the designers, buying houses and institutions, organisations and exporters.
It will suggest ways and means for improving the marketing of handloom products in domestic market as also measures for quadrupling exports of handloom products.
Besides, the committee will suggest measure for improving the input supplies (raw materials, credit, technology upgradation, skilling, designs etc).
The committee will submit its preliminary recommendations within 30 days and final report within 45 days from the date of constitution.