While tracking the development of the Indian handicrafts industry this week, the first story highlighted that the handicraft industry has exceeded its annual target and is now among the fastest sectors to get out of the recession. Much, the Government of India has also revised the handicraft export target for the current financial year.

 

The second story that caught my attention was that the Indian government is ready to provide more incentives to some of the “not strong” sectors, including the handicrafts industry. Even though the handicraft sector achieved its goal, it is still one of the most fragile areas, with growth not widespread or steady.

 

An industry-wide performance analysis conducted by the Government of India showed that labor-intensive sectors like apparel and handicrafts need additional measures for development consolidation before they can become self-sustainable in the long run.

 

All this goes on at one point that the present Government of India is very serious on the issues of small to medium scale industries and is taking aggressive measures to address their concerns.

 

So far, the value of Indian handicrafts exports is not very significant, however, it is still one of the major sources of employment. The United States remains the largest market for Indian handicrafts exporter after Britain. Indian handicrafts exports were heavily affected by the global economic slowdown.