Textiles minister seeks a boost to India's handloom clusters

The government will provide marketing linkages to handloom clusters and the textile ministry is in talks with the planning commission to enhance allocation for this sector, minister for textiles Dayanidhi Maran said today.

Maran said the government is committed to sustain the handloom sector that keeps alive the country's cultural vibrancy even as it creates new employment opportunities, particularly for the weakest sections of society.

The minister was inaugurating the National Handloom Expo in New Delhi as part of the first ever `Handloom Week' being organised by the ministry of textiles from 21 to 28 December 2009 across the country.

Maran said the textiles ministry has long been emphasising on the need to promote handlooms as the sector supports more lives than most other industries.

Commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma had also recently promised sops for labour intensive sectors like handloom, handicraft and leathers sectors.

Maran said handloom expos are being organised at Chennai, Coimbatore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Jaipur, Mumbai, Bhilai, Dehradun, Kanpur, Lucknow, Bengaluru, Puri, Kannur, Tirupati, Dimapur, Sibsagar, Bhopal, Chandigarh, and Patna, besides an exclusive series of fashion shows called `Symphony in weaves: The Handloom ensemble'.