Union Minister Arjun Munda inaugurates GI Mahotsav at LBSNAA
By Our Staff Reporter
Mussoorie, 5 Mar: Union Minister of Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda inaugurated the ‘Tribes India’ GI Mahotsav at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) here, today, in the presence of Bhaskar Khulbe, Advisor to the Prime Minister; Dr Sanjeev Chopra, Director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration; Pravir Krishna, Managing Director, TRIFED; and Padma Shri awardee Dr Rajni Kant, Advisor, TRIFED Atmanirbhar Bharat project on GI products.
The Tribes India GI Mahotsav – Invaluable Treasures of Incredible India is an exhibition of GI tagged products and more than 40 GI registered proprietors and GI authorised users and tribal artisans are participating and showcasing their region-specific products at this event. The purpose of the GI Mahotsav is to increase the awareness of these products amongst the Officer-Trainees and sensitise them to the rich cultural heritage of India so that they can, in turn, formulate policies that safeguard the interest of GI products in their region. The event will also provide more marketing opportunities to the registered producers and manufacturers. Around 180 IAS Officer-Trainees and faculty members of LBSNAA attended this exhibition and appreciated the displayed products.
On the occasion, Minister Munda also inaugurated the 130th Tribes India Showroom and Café of Tribes India at Velridge Building, LBSNAA. The showroom will market and promote GI products, high-quality handcrafted designs from different states and organic products. At the café, the finest of coffees from across the country including Arakku coffee from Andhra Pradesh and organic healthy cookies made by tribals can be sampled here. TRIFED jackets made in the traditional geometric Ikat weaving style practised by the weavers from Pochampally were also launched on the occasion.
In the afternoon, there was a lively and engaging session at which the eminent dignitaries addressed the officer trainees. Minister Arjun Munda and spoke about the importance of such events and how promotion and marketing of GI tagged products would extensively provide an opportunity to market India’s traditions, arts and crafts and show its spectacular heritage. Support from the administration would always help in boosting the morale of these producers. He added that through interactions at such events, these officer trainees would gain invaluable insights into the real challenges and be more sensitive when they start working in their respective states. Hailing this as a landmark event and being the first of its kind, Munda added, “The GI Mahotsav wherein so many tribal artisans and GI authorised sellers are here and exhibiting their products unique to their region is a noteworthy step in implementing the Prime Minister’s vision Vocal for Local and building an Atmanirbhar Bharat. I congratulate TRIFED and LBSNAA and Ministry of Culture for this unique step.”
During the session, Dr Rajani Kant also educated the Officer Trainees, earlier, about the status of GI products across India and the processes required for GI tagging.
Pravir Krishna gave a detailed presentation on how TRIFED has been working out strategies for tribal development. In his presentation, he spoke about how GI tagging can help preserve the traditions and heritage of tribal communities and how TRIFED has been putting in place programmes to link these communities with avenues of commerce. He added, “India has a vast legacy of indigenous products, be it handicrafts, handlooms, and other produce. GI tagging is helpful for the tribal artisans and motivates the marketers to expand their business, both, nationally and internationally. Keeping this in mind, TRIFED is partnering with several other departments to promote the cause of GI tagged products, and this latest exhibition is just one such step in this direction.”
It was also announced that TRIFED would be initiating a GI Atmanirbhar Project which would include 50 GI tagged products that will be marketed by Tribes India. Dr Rajni Kant would be the mentor for this project and would also help chart the way ahead for 54 potential products that have been just identified and identify more tribal products for getting a GI Tag from across the country.
During the session, Dr Sanjeev Chopra said, “This is the first time that such an exhibition with GI tagged products from across the country has been organised at LBSNAA. This is a worthwhile initiative and we appreciate it as this will help increase the awareness of the young IAS probationers. Not only will it sensitise them to the rich cultural heritage of our country, it will also help them take a step in the direction of realising the PM’s vision of a self-reliant India when they go to the field in their respective cadres.
Bhaskar Khulbe also conveyed his deep appreciation of the unique event and said, “Such initiatives will definitely empower the tribal artisans by giving them a wider exposure and larger markets.”
During the event, the Officer-Trainees also interacted with the GI registered proprietors, GI authorised users and artisans present at the exhibition and gained an insight into the challenges, issues faced by them and got an overall understanding about the products.
