The 33rd Annual General Meeting [AGM] of the Export Promotion Council was held today at New Delhi. Ravi K Passi, Chairman – EPCH while addressing the AGM informed that with the active support of the Council, exporting community performed very well with respect to exports from the Country which was rs. 23,029.36 cr in 2017-18 and reached to the tune of rs. 26,590.25 in 2018-19 cr registering an impressive growth of 15.46 percent over the previous year.
Passi further informed about multifarious activities related to marketing, product and design development, skilling, compliance and other initiatives undertaken by EPCH during 2018-19 which included participation in International fairs within India and in the overseas markets, organising informative seminars all across craft clusters, providing handholding to entrepreneurs, exporters and artisans and Council’s active engagement with MSME’s SFURTI programme in Northern Eastern Region.
He informed that Council also represented various issues pertaining to GST, MEIS benefits and the range of other issues affecting handicrafts sector at the highest level including Ministry of Textiles, Ministry of Commerce & Industry and Ministry of Finance.
With an objective to offer avenues for technological upgradation, skill development and marketing opportunities, EPCH set up Handicrafts Productivity Centre and Testing Laboratory at Jaipur, upgraded the Saharanpur Common Facility Centre with latest and modern technology machines elaborated Passi.
Rakesh Kumar, Director General – EPCH while speaking on the occasion informed the members present in the meeting about Council’s PAN India reach and active participation of the prominent exporters from various crafts pockets in development, promotion and growth of exports of handicrafts. He further informed the House about the tremendous increase of participation in IHGF Delhi Fair (Autumn/Spring) as well as footfall of overseas buyers in IHGF Delhi Fair in recent IHGFs. The DG-EPCH further informed the House about the council’s future plans to actively engage the social media platforms to increase its reach within India as well across the globe and also providing backward and forward linkages for overall growth of handicrafts sector.
During 33rd AGM also saw election for six members of the Committee of Administration were also elected. The newly elected members include Raj Kumar Malhotra of Asian Handicrafts Pvt. Ltd., Gurgaon from Northern Region, Hansraj Baheti of Thar Art Exports, Jodhpur and Lekhraj Maheshwari of Rajasthan Handloom & Handicrafts Industries, Jaipur from North West Region, Nabeel Ahmad of Nawab Regency, Moradabd Kamal Soni of M/s Vallabh Metal Inc., Moradabd and Sharad Kumar Bansal of Bansal Impex, Moradabad are elected from Central Region informed Rakesh Kumar, DG – EPCH.
The handicrafts exports during the eight months of current financial year from April to November, 2019-20 is rs. 17,292.68 cr registering a growth of over 2.72 percent over the same period in last year. A Large number of exporters from other States were also present during the Annual General Meeting.
