GoI to organize more than 100 Hunar Haats in next 5 years

The Ministry of Minority Affairs will organize more than 100 Hunar Haat in the next five years. The move aims to increase employment opportunities to craftsmen, artisans and culinary experts and also to increase their market exposure.

Highlights

The Ministry will organize Hunar Haats in Chennai, Delhi, Kolakata, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Patna, Dehradun and Indore. The ministry has also sanctioned to set up more than 100 Hunar hubs in different parts of the country.

The Ministry in its report said that more than 65,000 artisans and craftsmen have been employed through Hunar Haats in the last 2 years.

Significance

Indian Handicrafts have great recognition in international market. US and EU are the major destinations that account to 65% of export of Indian handicrafts. China is a new buyer. Other countries where Indian crafts have great market includes Israel, Uruguay, Columbia and chile. In 2019, India exported 128 billion rupees worth handicrafts. Last year, it stood at 118 billion rupees. The increase is 9%.

Government measures

The GoI has taken several steps to develop the handicraft sector. Government set up Indian Institute of Carpet at Bhadohi. It also reduced interest rates to MUDRA loans provided to handicrafts and artisans. The custom duties and exercises that were paid for importing inputs of handicrafts were refunded through Duty Drawback Channel.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2019