Indian Culture Fashion Guide

The level of artistry and intricacy achieved by Indian handloom fabrics is supreme and beyond the reach of modern machinery, preserving its heritage and culture. Undoubtedly cotton was the first fabric which has been used splendidly by Indian artisans. Silk and woollen follow. In the world of handlooms there are muslins of Chanderi, silk brocades of Varanasi, the ikats from Andhra and Orissa, the tie and dye from Rajasthan and Gujarat, the phulkari and khes of Punjab, jacquards fromUttar Pradesh, the phenek, tongam and bottle designs from Assam and Manipur, so on and so forth. And in today's date Indian handlooms are going global in a big way and have found support from the designer community too. Ritu Kumar who has created a distinct style of designing, always gives ample focus on the ancient traditions of Indian craftsmanship in contemporary terms. Her boutiques usually presents you with a comprehensive platform surrounding the top quality of Indian design that includes specially produced range of high fashion garments and accessories using silk, leather and cotton. She believes that Handlooms not only represent an industry but the cultural heritage of India and it's our responsibility to promote handloom as much as possible.

Other fashion biggies like Raghavendra Rathore, Narendra Kumar Ahmed and Anamika Khanna translated various elements picked up from the Rajasthan (known for Hand block prints, tie and dye, Bandhej) onto their designs and colour palettes. Not only designers, politicians too are doing their best to promote Indian textiles. For those who know Jaya Jaitly only as a politician- she is the founder President of a Crafts association Dastkari Haat Samiti and was instrumental in setting up the widely popular Dilli Haat. The lady recently opened one more store of 'DHS' with Poonam Bahl of 'Muave and Pink' at Khan Market. It's not a shop with shelves bearing branded products. The dcor is so that it creates a feeling of crafts. We want people to come and browse here. They can pick up things one usually misses in the jumble of Dilli Haat such as these wire cycles, found on Delhi streets that usually go unnoticed. Moreover, through this store I want to show how beautiful Indian craftsmanship is" says Jaya.

Read more about Indian Culture Fashion Guide @ Indian Handloom Cluster

Read more »

Burdwan Cluster: Hub of Sarees

Burdwan holds an important and considerable position in the handloom industry in West Bengal. Though this district is well-off with natural resources, a significant figure of people under rural sector preserves their living from this cluster heritage through conventional skills of handloom weaving. There are about 94000 weavers at Burdwan cluster either on a full-time or part-time work basis. Apart from this, there are extraordinary designers, dyers, card makers, traders and supplementary support providers. Approximately, 60% of weaver force is from the neighboring villages of the cluster while 40% weavers are from outside the West Bengal especially from North Bengal District.

Jamdani Sarees and Tangail sarees with special varieties like Naksa par, Butik etc cotton Baluchari, Silk/ cotton Baluchari saree which has been described as one of the most extremely valued products of Indian Textiles tradition. This cluster is an established producer of this type of heritage handloom products in West Bengal. Due to its uniqueness and craftsmanship it is beyond the affluence for competition with power loomed sarees. Different varieties of sarees produced in this cluster are very much popular and well accepted for its accomplished craftsmanship and elitism. In this cluster, funds are provided under Handloom Export Schemes. Out of nine, six of the societies have started exporting their products after receiving I.E.C. no. and rest no. of PWCS are in process to get the number. At least 180 weavers, covering 15 PWCS are busy in production of exportable fabrics. Fibre2fashion.com had an elite discussion with Mr. S. Badhopadhyaya, Cluster Development Executive of Burdwan Cluster. In this conversation he highlighted about the initiatives taken by the Government for the development of the cluster:

Government has facilitated collectivization of individual weavers by forming Self Help Groups (SHG), ensures support linkages of SHGs with Weavers Service Centre, National Institute of Fashion Technology, State Apex, Textile Committee and NHDC for skill up-gradation, marketing, design development and procurement of yarn. It provides format credit linkages through financial institutions like co-operatives/ commercial banks for SHGs, and encourages convergence of the schematic assistance from various schemes of State /Central Govt. for the weavers of this cluster to optimize resource utilization.

Original Source: Burdwan Cluster: Hub of Sarees

Read more about Indian Handloom Cluster at Fibre2fashion

Read more »

NID to help clusters improve product designs

The National Institute of Design, a leading multi-disciplinary institute in the field of design education and research, aims to improve and develop the designs of products produced in the clusters of the North- East region, and hence it plans to start its Centre at the Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE) at Guwahati.

Clustering is a measure that is adopted to ease assimilation of micro, small and medium enterprises into the domestic and global arena. Guwahati based IIE, is at the forefront of cluster development in the region since last four years.

Sriparna B. Baruah, Head of Regional Resource Centre at IIE, while speaking at a press conference said that, NID would help in upgrading the designs of several items that are prepared in different clusters of the region.

Baruah while speaking on the success of the clusters in the North-Eastern region stated that, Manipur based Imphal East handloom cluster can be quoted as an example of the same.

People working in this cluster who initially drew Rs. 30 per day are now earning Rs. 90 per day. Earlier, they were required to purchase yarn from a distant market but now, they have an option to purchase the same from the yarn bank which has been set up in the cluster itself.

Designers who have generated over 200 new designs, have given a new look to the Manipuri textiles, Baruah said and added that, apart from development of new designs, the designers have even diversified the Manipur handloom items to develop its alternative usages as per the requirements and demands of non-domestic consumers.

She further stated that, their aim was to upgrade the traditional clusters into industry clusters, and to set up common facility centres in already existing clusters, mainly in Assam. Also they plan to venture into clusters existing in the urban areas.

Original Source: NID to help clusters improve product designs at Fibre2fashion

Read more »

CG medal winners to adorned by Chanderi fabrics

Medal winners of the approaching Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi would be adorned with the outfits, made of popular Chanderi fabric, named Angvastram.

The Madhya Pradesh Handloom and Handicrafts Development Corporation is producing this special apparel as it has bagged the contract of supplying 1,375 specially designed Angvastrams, informed the officials.

The winners of the Commonwealth games, to be organized in the month of October, will be presented Angvastram with Commonwealth Games Mono and Mascot Shera, along with the medals.

For the past one year, officials of the corporation had been in contact with the organizers of Commonwealth games and about six months ago the Games Committee had approved a sample of Angvastram.

The committee had given a deadline of September 15 to the corporation to supply the decided amount of specially designed apparel.

Chanderi is a settlement in Ashok Nagar district and is about 300 km from Bhopal and weaves a a specific handloom textile known by its place of origin. Chanderi fabric has been woven since many centuries by a group of weaver communities and is widely known for producing high quality sarees.

Beside sarees, chanderi weavers now also produce various textile items such as fabric for ladies suits, running fabric, tops, stools, home furnishing items such as table cover, runner, napkin, cushion cover and curtains.

Chanderi cloths are available in silk, cotton and silk-cotton blend. Embroidery work is done as part of weaving; giving tenacity to the embroidery that is unique to chanderi fabrics.

Original Source:

Click Here to learn more about Indian Handloom Cluster at Fibre2fashion

Read more »

Bijnore Cluster

With around 7000 looms and 13000 weavers operating here, Bijnore cluster is the prime nucleus for products like Duster cloths, Home furnishing, and Dress materials. The Bijnore handloom cluster is stretched across a length of 60 km and breadth of 40 km. About 20% of the total production is supplied to Delhi based exporters like Fab India, All India Handloom Board & other major exporters through middle-men. The rest is sold in the domestic market at Naogaon, Sadat, Nahtore, Sheohara, Dhampur and Kath etc.

Fibre2fashion.com had an exclusive interview with Mr. Raman Shiv Kumar, CDP Officer of Bijnore Handloom Cluster, in which he threw light on Initiatives of Government by saying that, The IHCDP is being implemented in 20 handloom clusters across the country. This is a project of DCHL and started in the year 2006. Various implementing agencies have been appointed by DCHL for implementing this project. At the first instance an extensive baseline survey was conducted in all these clusters by the individual implementing agencies. This was followed by SWOT analysis based on which action plans are prepared for each cluster. The government has allocated rupees two crore for each cluster. The implementing agency gets the action plan approved by the APEX committee and the funds are sanctioned accordingly. This is a four year project and every year a fresh action plan is prepared and implemented. The important elements of the action plan are Marketing, Design development, and training, Technology up gradation, Infrastructure development and strengthening of association."

The weavers are taken to various tours to make them learn to work in groups. Trips to textiles fairs give them a detailed idea of variety of fabrics and products in the market, lot of finished products are developed from existing fabrics, and new fabrics & designs are also developed from which finished products are developed again. The weavers took part in various retail exhibitions where these products were displayed and sold. There was a good response for these products. The weavers participated in more number of exhibitions in various metros and their product knowledge and understanding of market requirement developed. The fabrics when converted into finished products attracted many bulk buyers during the exhibitions, which resulted in getting bulk orders.

Talking about the facilities provided to the weavers Mr. Raman Shiv Kumar says,"There has been development of Common Facility center with facilities like Information center with internet, Show rooms, yarn depot, Testing laboratories and pilot production units. Modern Dye house for yarn dyeing with latest Cabinet dyeing machines, Boiler, Gensests and other equipments, exposure visits to various textile production centers, participation in National and International Textile Expos are some important steps taken for the weavers betterment."

Read more »

Implementation of Handloom Cluster & Role of WSC

Govt. of India, Development Commissioner for Handloom, New Delhi has sanctioned 419 Handloom clusters. Among that 9 handloom clusters in Gujarat State has been sanctioned during the 2008-09 to the Weavers Service Centre, Ahmedabad. Rest was allotted to Gujarat State Handloom & Handicraft Corporation,Gandhinagar; namely Junagarh, Amreli, Porbandar, Surendranagar, Limbdi, Palanpur, Vadgam (Banaskantha), and Bhuj.

Ahmedabad cluster (Amraivadi, Geetamandir) has been sanctioned to Weavers Service Centre, Ahmedabad to cover up 490 Handloom Weavers under various components.Under this project, Weavers Service Centre, Ahmedabad has undertaken the work to uplift the weavers of the Amraiwadi and Gitamandir and given benefit to the 218 weavers under various components.

Click Here to Learn more about Implementation of Handloom Cluster & Role of WSC at Indian Handloom Cluster

Read more »

Smiling Face of Chanderi Weavers(A Full Circle)

The Government of India has adopted a Cluster approach for a focused development of Handloom weavers. Office of Development Commissioner Handlooms, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, took imperative step to nurture, promote and develop the exclusiveness of the handloom sector. In the first phase 20 Pilot clusters were selected across 12 States of the country. Several innovative strategic approaches brought the success to its credit under the four year programme. The turn around story of the Chanderi Cluster was one of them. For the development of Chanderi Cluster, the weavers of Chanderi were organized into small Self Help Groups which further formed a federation i.e.; Chanderi Handlooms Cluster Development Company Limited, ensuring the participation and transparency for realizing the benefits to its weaver members.

With focused intervention activities past 3 years in the areas of raw material procurement, design development, process up-gradation, dying & coloring, direct marketing & Exports through Building/Strengthening of institutions, up scaling the facilities available infrastructure was strengthened by ensuring quality dyeing the in house dye houses using VAT, Acid and Vegetable Dyes. A fully equipped Common Facility Centre was constructed in an area of 3000 sq. ft. to provide facilities for operating colour & yarn bank; testing of yarn & fabric; showcasing new designs; sample development and other facilities to local weavers at nominal operating charges, with the help of Public & Commercial service providers, Chanderi cluster achieved positive growth thereby improving well being of more than 2500 Handloom weavers & their families through social security by way of Health Insurance cover worth Rs.15000/- to the weaver and his family and life insurance cover to the Handloom weavers & families.

Click Here to Learn more about Smiling Face of Chanderi Weavers(A Full Circle) at Indian Handloom Cluster

Read more »

Gadag handloom cluster transforming with changing times

Gadag cluster is a famous cotton trading centre for Jayadhar variety of cotton. It has also occupied a significant place in the handloom industry of Karnataka. There are about 3,600 active working handlooms in the cluster. A round 10,000 people are depending in this industry for their livelihood. The cluster is also very much popular for its traditional product called Gaadi Dhadi Sarees .

History of the Gadag handloom cluster shows the rise and fall of products and goods manufactured in the past years. Even the products manufactured here have been changed from ordinary cotton sarees to mercerized cotton saris and high quality of silk saris. Today more than 50% of the production is only of cotton saris. Though the profit margin is meager in cotton saris, but it enjoys better demand compared to silk saris.

These "Gaadi dhadi" traditional saris are largely worn by women of north Karnataka and some parts of Masharastra. These people prefer these saris for almost all their cultural and traditional functions because of its combination of harmonious colours, quality and richness.

The core cluster actors are small weavers, weavers who are job workers, businessmen weavers, and small handloom production units, KHDC Ltd and the Handloom cooperative societies. Apart from weavers, skilled designers are also available in the cluster. The local designer needs adequate training for the up-gradation of design development to meet the present market needs.

Majority of the handlooms in the cluster are working under the patronage of the KHDC. The handloom weavers who work for KHDC produce furnishing fabrics, terry towels, bedsheets, suiting, shirtings, floor coverings, tablemats, etc. The other weavers in the cluster limit themselves to producing silk, silk blends and cotton traditional saris.

Almost all the weavers in the cluster are depending on job work. The weaver working under KHDC will get raw materials from KHDC and they after weaving the materials hand it back to the KHDC. The weavers, who get the raw materials from cooperative societies, produce for the respective cooperative societies.

The weavers under the master weavers to their master weavers, the weavers of khadi board to their respective khadi board. These weavers are paid the conversion charges on piece rate basis. Only the small weavers do their business on their own. The KHDC and Khadi Board market their products through their chain of sales outlet and directly to different govt institutions. The cooperatives and the small manufacturer weavers will supply their goods to local retailers and wholesalers.

The small weavers sell their products in the local market directly to the consumer or to the local trader. It has been observed in the value-chain analysis that the local traders enjoy greater margin than the others. But after proper intervention for cost reduction in inputs through bulk purchase, improved processing methods, upgrading designs and introduction of direct selling mechanism, instead of the trader, this has helped increase the earnings and margins of the weavers.

Original Source:

Read more »

A company by the weavers, for the weavers and of the weavers

Kishen Lal is a happy man today. Toiling on his looms for years, he had never dreamt that one day he would be owner (shareholder) of a company. There are 249 weavers like him in Chanderi in Madhya Pradesh who are now proud shareholders in a private limited company formed by them. For them, July 30, 2010 will always be a day of reckoning as they received their first dividend certificates at a function held here on Friday.

This company is a result of Union government's effort to revive the handloom sector. With Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI), Ahmedabad, as the implementing agency, ministry of textiles launched four-year Integrated Handlooms Cluster Development Scheme in Chanderi in 2006 to help handloom weavers meet the challenges of globalised environment.

Chanderi Handlooms Cluster Development Producers' Company Limited was registered initially with 10 members on May 29, 2008. Today, the firm has 249 shareholders (237 weavers and 12 weaver SHGs).

"It's a story of empowering weavers at grassroots level. Weavers were first organised in self-help groups (SHGs) and given exposure to exhibitions and sales to help them understand the production-to-marketing cycle. They realised that pooling of resources of SHGs is more fruitful than going solo with similar designs and limited means," says Tarun Bedi, faculty (EDI) & CDE, Chanderi/Gwalior.

"Weavers had their doubts though about availability of working capital, wage sustainability, availability of reliable market linkages, potential for conflicts in the distribution of profit and in their own capacity," says Mangilal, a weaver and in-charge of production planning, monitoring and quality control. To allay their fears, weavers were taken to Bunkar Vikas Sanstha to see how a federation worked.

"When the project was initiated, nobody was ready to accept that designs can be simplified and newer patterns can be introduced. Two months of training and a visit to an exhibition later, they began to create new designs as per the market requirements," says Sanjay Garg, a designer from NIFT, Delhi, whose services have been hired for design development and forming linkages with buyers.

Original Source:

Read more »

Handloom Cluster project opens in Imphal

A Handloom Development Cluster Project has recently been launched, under the Integrated Handloom Cluster Development Scheme. The District Industries Centre (DIC) of Imphal East organized the inaugural ceremony of the project in association with the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India.

The government offered this cluster development project to the Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and weavers to boost the economic conditions of the state of Manipur, informed Thongju MLA and Deputy Chairman of the Manipur State Planning Board, Mr. Bijoy Koijam, who was present at the event as a Chief Guest.

Citing this project as a big project, he stated that the state is still lagging behind in handloom production, though it has done a remarkable endeavor in sports, horticulture
and agriculture sector. Therefore, he appealed the SHGs and the weavers of the state to avail the benefits offered by the Central government.

This Handloom Development Cluster Project will provide assistance to around 500 families of Uchekon. Beneficiaries of the project received cheques towards the end of the function.

Original Source:

Read more »

Genuine Kancheepuram sarees face stiff competition

The Kancheepuram silk saree, churned out by the Department of Handlooms and Textiles in Tamil Nadu is witnessing a demand fall of sorts, never seen before, mainly due to competition from the private sector.

The department has organised a sale in the capital of Tamil Nadu; Chennai, where it is giving discounts as high as 45 percent, in a bid to clear the high inventory levels and to maintain flow of working capital.

The main reason for this condition is that the private sector weavers and traders use artificial silk zari sarees and pass off the sarees as pure Kancheepuram silk sarees, which the government agency is unable to do.

These private sector players are able to sell these counterfeit silk sarees at a rate which is far lower than the prices quoted at the stores run by the department, since the cost of a genuine silk saree vastly exceeds the prices of sarees made from art silk.

Experts, whom fibre2fashion spoke to, are of the opinion that the department should initiate a consumer awareness campaign to educate the customer, to know the difference between an art silk and genuine silk Kancheepuram saree.

Original Source:

Read more »

Bargarh Handloom Cluster - A caption for every motif or design

Bargarh Handloom cluster is spread over the entire Block of Bargarh, Attabira, Bijepur and Sohella. The cluster has 7158 numbers of looms as per the survey report of the zonal Handloom office taken up during the year 2004 out of which 5102 looms are working in 299 different villages.

The main products of the cluster are cotton sarees of tie and dye and small amount of dress materials, lungis and napkins etc. The annual production is around 10 Crores rupees. The products of this area are mostly marketed in Orissa and National market. The cluster so to say represents Orissa in quantitative and qualitative Tie and Dye Cotton Sarees as no other clusters of other districts in Orissa produces such sarees.

Bargarh is one of the major revenue generating district, situated in western part of Orissa. It is 380 Kms far from state capital, Bhubaneswar and around 50 Kms far from Sambalpur Town. The town is well connected with road and railways. it is on the Road side of National Highway number 5 (Mumbai - Kolkata). The nearest Air port is Raipur, state capital of Chhatisgarh.

The weaving in the cluster by the traditional weavers’ community popularly known as "Bhulia" came in to existence during mid of 17th century and with increase in their population, they spread to other nearby places. They initially belong to Rajasthan and were presented during the 14th century to the ruler of Patna State, a king of Chouhan dynasty "Ramai Deb". Later on they were presented to the king of Sonepur during the 16th century and scattered to the nearby district i.e., Bargarh in the next century.

The cluster consists sizable number of professional weavers (Non traditional) from Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe (Kuli caste) weavers, which in total accounts for 60 %. Generally these weavers are less skilled and engaged in production of Napkin, Lungi, Sarees, Dhotis, etc.

Weaving with Tie dye in the cluster prior to 40”s was done with 40''/42'' looms operated with hanging slay and engaged in producing Kapta, Lungi and Napkins made of 12's/16's/20's cotton yarn. The yarns were dyed with vegetable colours. The main colours were Yellow (from Turmeric), Maroon (From bark of Aal tree), Blue form Nile and Black (From Hirakasi and Chakda Seeds).

Fabrics of vegetable colours were sometimes not fast and ranges of colours were also limited, forcing the Tie-Dye production in to limited colours and so also the design. Such practice was on vogue till the mid of 40s when vat colour was first substituted for in place of some vegetable colours.

The next major changes in the cluster took place with the introduction of twisted cotton mercerized yarn and synthetic colours in the early 60's. The looms started widening mainly to 52" width for normal sarees and other production and 90" for double bed sheet production. There were also few 60'' / 72" looms to accommodate weaving of middle-sized bed sheets.

Original Source:

Read more »

Burdwan keeps Mughal era handloom tradition alive

'Jamdani' and 'Tangail' are two pioneer sarees in the field of heritage handloom products of Bengal handloom and Burdwan handloom cluster in particular.

'Jamdani' - the great characteristic of fine art in hand weaving derived from a Persian word 'Jam' meaning a 'cup' and 'Dani' denotes the 'container'. Jamdani style of weaving flourished under the benign, rich and enlightened patronage of kings and emperors.

It may be considered as a textile of excellence for its super fine qualities in the fifteenth & sixteenth centuries. Excellence in weaving lies in the virtuosity of forms drawn from the social, religious and natural environment and translated through a particular technique and the weaver's sensitivity to create a new art form.

The figured muslin with delicate motifs worked on by deft fingers, needed besides skill, unlimited patience, a length of cloth sometimes taking months to weave.

The "Mughals" recognized this excellence, acknowledged its rarity. During the region of Emperor Jahangir and Aurangzeb, the manufacturer of finer Jamdani was a rare product and a royal monopoly. After the Mughalera, Jamdanis continued to be developed under the patronage of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Tanda and Nawab of Dhaka (Bangladesh).

The weavers of Dhaka were expert in Jamdani known as 'Daccai Jamdani' for producing mainly sarees and dress materials. While the weavers of "Tanda" and "Varanasi" in Awadh were experts in weaving of 'Awadh Jamdani' for producing mainly sarees, dress materials, handkerchiefs, Ornas, caps, table cover etc.

Both "Dacca" & "Tanda" Jamdanis, the ground warp and weft threads are commonly of fine nature grey cotton yarn of counts, ranging from 60s to 150s. However, mulberry silk (13/15 Den filature) yarn were also used. The warp yarn used for selvedge at normally 1/4th width are either grey or bleached cotton in both the styles.

In case of indigo dyed Nilambari Jamdani sarees of Bengal, the selvedge yarn dyed with madder colour is beautifully matched. Bleached cotton, indigo and black dyed cotton, silver and gold zari, munga threads are used as extra weft for figured motif in Dacca whereas, bleached cotton and gold zari are in vogue in "Tanda" as extra weft. The small cut piece of 3-5 ply of these extra yarns are used for the desired effect of each motif using the same count as that of warp yarn.

8' x 8' pit looms were generally used for producing figured Jamdani. Like other sarees, hank sizing is largely followed for Jamdani from hank form yarn available in market.

The motion of layout of Jamdani fabrics are directly woven on loom by traditional master weavers from their hereditary skill, experience and talent. Traditional Jamdani motifs are geometric in concept, adopted from local flowers, birds, leaves, zig-zag lines, and so on by the weavers who improved and evolved a directory of design of "Dacca Gharana" These designs have its nomenclature in Hazar-buti, Chand, Tara-buti, Dora-kata' Dabutar- khop, Rose-leaf etc.

Original Source:

Read more »

Barabanki handloom cluster exports 95% of goods

Barabanki Handloom Cluster in Uttar Pradesh is famous for weaving since the Nawab period of Lucknow. About 95% of the turnover of this handloom cluster is exported. Most of the facilities are outsourced by cluster actors as the demands of the export market are heavy and time bound.

The cluster is a good destination for stoles and scarves and some of the world famous designs are being exported to various Middle East and European countries. The cluster has brought about improvements in its dyeing quality with installation of dyeing facilities and up-gradation of the existing dye houses.

The weavers can be categorized into 2 types, based on their skill:
- Weavers who produce higher end products such as stoles, scarves & shawls for the export market.
- Weavers who produce low quality products such as Gamcha for the local market.

Financing for the Barabanki district cluster is covered by Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana Scheme under backward district initiative. Under the scheme, infrastructure facilities like roads can be developed. Besides the scheme also provides training and other facilities.

Amongst other financing facilities available are the common financing to facilitate cheaper institutional finances like Mutual Credit Guarantee Scheme and common finance to facilitate common facility centers and common raw material purchase.

Original Source:

Read more »

Bhagalpur cluster silk output next only to Karnataka

Bhagalpur is a divisional town of historical importance situated on the southern bank of the Ganga river. The Bhagalpur handloom weaver’s history traces back to over 100 years. It was a family tradition among the lower income group of people to take up the weaving job.

There are about approximately 70,000 handloom weavers in Bhagalpur handloom cluster. The major products produced here are Silk Dress material, Sarees, Salwar Suits, Dupattas, Kurta Pajamas, Cushion Covers, Bed Sheets, Shawls, Scarves, Curtains, Throws, Table Covers, and Napkins & Runners.

The total value of trade from Bhagalpur Silk cluster is around Rs 100 crore annually. 50 percent of the turnover is from the domestic market and the balance 50 percent is from export market. The Bhagalpur cluster is the second highest in silk fabric production and exports, after Karnataka.

Bhagalpur silk home furnishing made ups are gradually becoming popular in the domestic as well as overseas markets as well.

In Bhagalpur the weavers service centre (GOI) was established in the year 1974 with a view to developing handloom silk industry in the state of Bihar. There has been partially successful in providing training to weavers and in the area of designing, printing and dyeing.

The production of handloom tassar silk in the form of fabric is 200 metric tons annually. 50 percent of the silk tassar fabric is being exported and the balance 50 percent of the fabric is converted into Sarees and other dress materials.

The Bhagalpur handloom cluster has some very good inherent opportunities like; very good export potential for home furnishing value added made ups in the selected overseas countries, brand building for handloom silk value added products in the domestic and international market.

Other opportunities include product diversification like that of home furnishing value added made ups and it has access to a very large Indian market for branded silk products due to the present high growth of retail sales in India.

Original Source:

Read more »