IBEF, TPCI, FIEO roped in for brand building of J&K handicraft products

New Delhi: A delegation of officers from Government of Jammu & Kashmir headed by Mahmood Ahmad Shah, Director, Handicrafts & Handloom, Kashmir, attended a series of meetings with the Senior officers of India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI) and Federation of Indian Export Organization (FIEO) here Tuesday regarding brand building of products manufactured in Jammu and Kashmir. Vikas Gupta, Director Handicrafts & Handloom, Jammu and Aamir A. Rather, General Manager, JKTPO were also the part of the visiting delegation.
The delegation discussed in detail the products manufactured in J&K with Associate Director, IBEF, Parul Singh. During the meeting it was given that that standard parameters need to be put in place in order to distinguish GI Tagged products from other items. The meeting also decided that better branding on J&K products is required to gain customer’s trust.
During the interaction, it was also suggested that short-duration films regardingGI Tagging should be created and circulated on the social media platforms for awareness of the masses at large.
Associate Director, IBEF, assured the visiting delegation that IBEF will help improve the designing and branding of J&K products and will also create a direct link between artisans and customers. The meeting also discussed the ways and means for displaying and marketing the products of J&K at five-star hotels and showrooms in different cities across the country.
The IBEF also agreed to provide value addition to the existing products and Film Tourism promotion in J&K. In another meeting with Kapil Gupta, Joint Director General, TPCI and Sandip Das, Deputy Director General, TPCI in depth discussion was held to identify suitable locations in various cities across the country to organie exhibitions in the month of March, 2021 to showcase the J&K products.
The meeting was informed that around 25-30 artisans will participate in each exhibition. Further, it was also deliberated to showcase J&K products in malls and other preferable locations with heavy footfall. The officers of TPCI assured to provide all necessary infrastructure, logistics and publicity support for these exhibitions.
Similarly in an another meeting with Prashant Seth, Director, FIEO and Chandranath Som, DDG, FIEO, global visibility to local industries, self help groups and GI Tagged items was discussed in length.
It was given out in the meeting that the process of creating a JKTPO-FIEO co-branded E-commerce portal for GI Tagged items of J&K having the capability of retail sale has already been initiated. Further, the capacity-building cum training programs, handholding programs to guide MSMEs and artisans were also discussed in the meeting.
The meeting was also informed that FIEO is in process of preparing a concept note for Export strategy for J&K products. Besides this, it will also help in promoting the products of J&K on social media.
The meeting also held detailed deliberations on issues of exporters, HS Codes for Handicrafts & Handloom products and setting up of standard parameters to differentiate handmade, machine made and semi-machine made articles.