Union Minister of Textiles Smriti Zubin Irani said that the government is implementing the Handloom Marketing Assistance (HMA) scheme for promotion of handloom products.

In a written reply in the Lok Sanha, Irani said that for providing marketing facility to all the handloom products including Arani Silk, Government of India is implementing Handloom Marketing Assistance (HMA)scheme, a component of National Handloom Development Programme (NHDP), all across India.

The scheme provides marketing platform to the handloom weavers/organisations to sell their products directly to the consumers. Under the scheme, financial assistance is provided to National Level Handloom Organisations and nominated handloom agencies of the State Governments to organize the marketing events like National Handloom Expos (NHEs), Special Handloom Expos (SHEs) and District Level Events (DLEs). 

In addition to the above, Central Silk Board through Silk Mark Organisation of India is organising “Silk Mark Expo” in various towns and cities including Chennai near Arani.  Silk Mark Expos provide excellent platform to promote silk products of different silk clusters of India including Arani cluster.

So far more than 125 Silk Mark Expos have been conducted in the country during the last ten years and opportunities are also given to Arani silk weavers to participate in such Expos.

There is no proposal under consideration of Government of India for establishing Silk Park in Arani.  

However, under Section 8 of the Companies Act 2013, Arani Master Weavers have created and registered a non-profit company “Arani Handloom Silk Park” and a MoU have been signed with the Government of Tamil Nadu in 2015, the minister said.

Published On : 19-07-2019

Source : SME Times