World over Indian handicraft industry is usually described as highly labour intensive, cottage based industry and decentralized. Even though this is an unorganized sector it provides direct and indirect employment to over six million artisans. This sector holds great importance not just from the high employment potential point of view but also from the kind of forex it generates from its surprisingly low capital investment. In general, handicrafts can be broadly classified into two categories:
1.Articles of everyday use
2.Decorative items
The handicraft manufacturers use a wide range of medium to express their creativity and originality. Most of the common medium used are textiles, metals – precious and semi-precious, wood, precious and semi-precious stones, ceramic and glass.
Apart from the woodwork like handcrafted wooden toys, furniture, decorative articles etc. which remain in demand throughout the season, textile based handicrafts like block and screen printing, batik, kalamkari (hand printing by pen) and bandhani are also quite popular. The next in the line comes handcrafted items made from clay, metal (like brass, bronze etc.) and jewelry. Last but not the least, glass and ceramic items too are quite sought after and can be placed next to stone craft made out of marble, sandstone etc.
Indian made handicrafts items have a distinct competitiveness in the international market primarily due to their designs and low cost. Even though its share in the global arena is somewhat minuscule , even then its demand is growing at a rapid pace. In the times to come , in order to match the supply with the current demand we need to lower our reliance on the handwork of the artisans and instead incorporate new technologies, focus on innovation, and improvise distribution channels .
Experts re-emphasize the fact that the handicraft industry holds the potential to give employment to millions of rural folks. All that it needs is support from the government and some assistance from the corporate sector. On the whole, it seems that handicraft suppliers from India are all set to make their presence felt across the globe and inching towards their way to become a market leader.
PS : handicrafts exporters get your online catalog today and make profits by tapping the business queries being generated across the globe on the web 24/7 . To know more , click on Indian handicrafts manufacturers
“A guy walks up to me and asks 'What's Punk?'. So I kick over a garbage can and say 'That's punk!'. Then he kicks over the garbage can and asks “That's Punk?', I say 'No, that's trend!'” -
Billie Joe Armstrong
News reports confirm that India's handicrafts industry is in a healthy state and is poised for further growth. As last heard, India's handicraft export grew by about 19 per cent (approx. over $154.16 million) in May, thanks to the increasing demand from the US market.
Another report confirms the surge and even predicted that buoyed by an increase in demand from the US and Europe, India's handicraft exports may even touch the Rs 10,000 crore mark in the current fiscal year.
Among such rosy predictions we decided to delve deep into the so called forecasts and do a reality check ourselves for the upcoming trends and challenges. Below is a sneak peek on what can Indian handicrafts exporters expect in the upcoming year.
Use of protectionist measures from the western economies
Loss of employment, crashing markets and dwindling economy will result in open advocacy of protectionist measures in the next few months. The concept of Globalization would be challenged by it own very founding fathers.
Aggressive Chinese intrusion
China is on the rise. Its manufacturing units are more than prepared to flood the market with their surplus product, in an attempt to change the rules of the way trade is conducted worldwide.
Demand for non controversial work conditions
Developed countries will use this as one of the weapon from their artillery to counter the industrial growth of developing economies. This holds the potential to create a major stand off among the world leaders specially at the G-20 meet ups. In addition to that, businesses will be encouraged (with more intensity) to use greener technologies and cleaner resources to manufacture their products.
Heavy usage of social media / online promotion
More and more companies will create their online presence. Usage of social media will gradually speed up and push companies to change the way they conduct their business over the net. SEO will find it more challenging to maintaining their clients reputation online.
Emergence of demand for indian goods specially from the new locations
So far the US and EU together account for 70 per cent of the country's handicraft export. However the slump in economy has challenged the power equations across the globe resulting in emergence of new locations with growing buying power. Make no mistake , new markets like Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe are the next exciting names to do business with.
Conclusion
Overall the picture looks somewhat balanced, reflecting upon the upcoming challenges and showing a ray of hope as well that a solid platform has been setup for Indian handicrafts exporters to take on the world stage. Hope 2011 prove to be an exciting year for the Indian handicrafts exporters and their sales surges to record levels.
PS : handicrafts exporters get your online catalog today and make profits by tapping the business queries being generated across the globe on the web 24/7 . To know more , click on handicrafts manufacturers
It seems like paul the octopus (who predicted the FIFA world cup results correctly) is in high demand once again. New delhi seeks his services badly to know if the commonwealth games would take place successfully or not? Sad that unlike our politicians he has retired and wouldn't make any predictions ever in the future.
Another aspect which has been overshadowed by the commonwealth mess has been the decline in the estimated influx of tourists to see the games. Forget the spectators, the organisers are now seen pleading hard to the athletes to turn up for the event. What could have been a golden opportunity for the government to put Delhi gloriously on the world map, has now bruised delhi's image to the unthinkable levels.
"We were told that nearly 1 lakh tourists will arrive apart from the athletes and officials which could have given our business a huge boost, however, now that the event itself is in the danger of being called off, all the plans and expectations of better business have gone for a toss." says one of the handicrafts manufactures.
The government still maintains that not all is lost and efforts are being made to stage the event smoothly. In case the heavy influx of tourists do arrive, there are still many places where in they can shop in peace without much security concern . As has been the trend in the past, tourist mainly gets attracted towards the handcrafted items like wooden handicrafts, brass handicrafts, silver handicrafts etc. The main places to shop, especially the handicrafts items are dilli haat, connaught place, janpath and state emporium houses.
Handicrafts suppliers mainly deal with wooden decorative items, furniture, jewellery, garments, wall hangings, marble handicrafts, paintings and metal handicrafts. The handicrafts items which are popular mainly amongst the tourists are wooden and brass handicrafts, brass statues, gods statue, brass decorative, statues of hindu goddess, european statues, enamelware, miniatures etc.
Most of the handicrafts manufacturers and suppliers had pinned their hopes on this mega event to recover from the economic slump and are now understandably worried with the turn of events.
As one of the handicrafts exporters sums up the general sentiment - "We sincerely want these games to happen successfully, it is good not just for our business but for the country as well. May be the media has exaggerated the mismanagement but now is the time to focus on the successful completion of these games."
So the big question everyone asking is - Can we pull it off ? Well, oct 3rd isn't far off and the next few days would determine whether New Delhi would be able to salvage its reputation or not !
PS : If you are a handicrafts exporters get your online catalogue today and make profits by tapping the business queries being generated across the globe on the web 24/7 . To know more , click on handicrafts exporters
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