GUWAHATI: Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) and Ernst & Young LLP (EY) have jointly undertaken the implementation of, HSBC supported project "Hand-Made in India", intending to strengthen the handloom value chain, making the weavers self-reliant. This program will impact over 3,000 weavers and artisans in the six identified handloom clusters across Assam, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Tamil Nadu. In Assam, this project is under implementation in several villages under Hajo and Sualkuchi development blocks.
According to a release, EDII faculty Dr. Smita Chetia Talukdar has said "As a part of the Project 'Handmade in India', EDII has designed interventions that are aimed for capacity building of beneficiaries to improve their knowledge about availing credit, strengthening and establishing market linkages, introducing new designs and prints. Interventions related to capacity building are through creating awareness about benefits of upskilling and trust-building, productivity improvement and exposure visits to other clusters for cross-learning have been introduced as a part of the program. Since November 2019, 40 such interventions have been conducted and this program will be continuing till 2022 which aims to cover 800 beneficiaries". In June, nine such interventions have been conducted where exporter cum entrepreneur Naramohan Das, motivator Hiten Sharma and Media expert Rupom Chetia Bora have given training on diversified handloom products, motivation and soft skills to the target beneficiaries.