Union Minister Nitin Gadkari inaugurates 5 traditional clusters under SFURTI

GUWAHATI: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday inaugurated five traditional clusters of Assam under Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI) of Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), through video conferencing.

It may be noted that the SFURTI scheme under Ministry of MSME, aims at upgrading the traditional handloom and handicraft and agro processing industries in the State which are lagging behind for different reasons.

The inaugurated clusters are — Traditional Dress Making & Embroidery Cluster at Sipajhar in Darrang district, Naharbari Tea Cluster in Sonitpur, Traditional Dress Making & Embroidery Cluster in Kokrajhar, Sitalpati Craft Cluster in Goalpara, and Silk Khadi Cluster at Hajo in Kamrup.

All the clusters have been involved in different activities such as handloom, handicraft, agro processing, besides a Common Facility Centre (CFC) under SFURTI Intervention of the cluster where artisans/ growers would get benefit of technology upgradation reflecting in their improved productivity and income, said a release.

The Naharbari Tea Cluster in Sonitpur is formed under the Small Tea growers Association where they set up Mini Tea Manufacturing unit for producing CTC Tea under the SFURTI assistance.

In the traditional Dress Making and Embroidery Cluster, Sipajhar, the release said weavers are producing different diversified product in handloom with high market potential.

The traditional dress making and embroidery cluster, Kokrajhar, is an SHG federation driven cluster where they use traditional texture in making diversified handloom products.

The Silk Khadi Cluster, Hajo, has been working especially on silk and khadi and with the technology upgradation after SFURTI intervention.

Sitalpati Craft Cluster, Goalpara, is a fine example of Atmanirbhar Bharat where artisans producing different utility and decorative items with the available raw material in the vicinity, the release said, adding, artisans income has risen due to product diversification, market linkages. The India Institute of Entrepreneurship, Guwahati is the nodal Agency of all the above mentioned clusters in the State.

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