Textiles Minister Smriti Irani presents Sant Kabir Awards in Varanasi.
The union ministry of textiles today marked the second National Handloom Day with a series of events in the Prime Minister's constituency in Varanasi during which weavers were awarded and a number of agreements were inked in the presence of union minister Smriti Irani.
The minister felicitated the winners of Sant Kabir National Handloom Awards (2015) and also distributed MUDRA (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency) loans to the weavers during the event.
Ms Irani also announced to allot new buildings for six Common Facility Centres (CFCs) in Varanasi.
The textile ministry also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship for skills upgrade of handloom weavers through Weavers Service Centres (WSCs).
Also, it inked MoUs with National Institute of Open Schooling and Indira Gandhi National Open University to provide education facilities to weavers and designer institutes--National Institute of Fashion Technology, Fashion Design Council of India--to promote hand-woven textile.
Leading fashion designers including Anita Dongre, Samant Chauhan, Sanjay Garg, Shruti Sancheti, Rina Dhaka, Tarun Tahiliani and Rajesh Pratap Singh also joined hands to promote the handloom industry.
Minister of State (Independent charge) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Uttar Pradesh Textile Minister Mehaboob Ali, Minister of State for Textiles Ajay Tamta, and Development Commissioner (Handlooms) Alok Kumar were also present at the event.