Newsletter-78::Volume-7::Issue-2
:::: IN THIS ISSUE ::::

OUR INITIATIVES
  • Empowering women through Training

KNOW YOUR CLUSTER

  • Agra Footwear Cluster
INFORMATION SHARING CORNER
  • Geographical Indications and India
CLUSTER DEVELOPMENT-ISSUES AND POLICIES
  • Crafts Mela 2012 at Surajkund, Faridabad

  • Leather cluster to come up near Tiruvannamalai

  • Furniture cluster set to come up in Kozhikode

  • Encouraging project at Uttarakhand pharma cluster

  • Centre selects 7 states to set up vegetable clusters

ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT ISSUES

  • India ranks 125th in Environment Performance Index: report


  • Kindling students' interest in issues about environment
  • Himachal to be the 1st state to become carbon-neutral by 2020:Dhumal

INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (ICTs)

  • DIT gears up to handle 'Aakash 2' tendering process
  • Nasscom: IT can improve healthcare in India
  • The World Bank provides more aid for information technology development programmes.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS (IPR)

  • Law on patent protection for common man in works
  • Awareness on Intellectual Property Rights need of the day’
  • With GI powers, rich pickings for Mysore farmers
  • Potato awarded special EU status

MICRO, SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (MSMEs)

  • Working group on MSME growth proposes road map for KVIC
  • MSME Min demands Rs 64K-cr budget allocation for 12th Plan
  • 12th Plan Vision for MSME Growth
  • IOB gets Rs 100 cr MSME funding from SIDBI

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

  • International Leather Goods Fair 2012
  • Garment Technology Expo 2012
  • Giftex Stationex & Jutex
- EDITORIAL SUPPORT -

• Saraswati Rawat

• B P Singh

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
CLUSTER DEVELOPMENT - ISSUES & POLICIES

::: IN FOCUS :::
Ayush dept seeks Rs.1010-cr to expand cluster scheme covering all states

The Department of Ayush is seeking to double the allocation in the next five years for expanding the ambitious programme of common clusters for the industry which could not prove to be a big success during the 11th Plan period.

The department, which got Rs.505 crore during the last Plan period for supporting development of common facilities for Ayush industry clusters and for providing incentives to industry for participation in fairs and conduct of market studies, is seeking Rs.1010.50 crore for spanning out the scheme during the 12th Plan term, sources said. more


Crafts Mela 2012 at Surajkund, Faridabad :-
...............................................................................
Like every year Surajkund Crafts Mela is being organized in 2012 by Haryana Tourism Department starting from 1st feb 2012. Surajkund Crafts Mela is being organized from 1981, every year from 1- 15 Feb., which provides the Indian artists and craftsmen across the country with a strong platform to display their skills in crafts and art. This years Surajkund Crafts Mela will be 26th Mela of the series. more...

Leather cluster to come up near Tiruvannamalai:-
...............................................................................
The Central Government’s proposed leather cluster for TN, that was announced in the Union Budget 2011-2012, is likely to come up near Tiruvannamalai. The process of land acquisition and other formalities are underway.members of the Council for Leather Exports said on Monday. more...

Furniture cluster set to come up in Kozhikode:-
...............................................................................
The age-old furniture industry in Kozhikode, located perhaps in one of the largest timber trading regions in the world and comprising hundreds of micro manufacturing units and related facilities, is set to be developed in a cluster mode. more...

Encouraging project at Uttarakhand pharma cluster :-
...............................................................................
Thanks to a three-year project by the World Bank and the UK Department for International Development, in association with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), Uttarakhand’s 200-odd pharmaceutical companies, mostly small and medium enterprises (SMEs), are set to realise their export potential. more...


Centre selects 7 states to set up vegetable clusters:-
...............................................................................
The Centre has chosen seven states to set up clusters to improve supplies of vegetables that were a prime driver of food inflation, official sources said on Monday. more...

ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT ISSUES

India ranks 125th in Environment Performance Index: report :-
...............................................................................
India ranks a low 125 in the Environment Performance report of the prestigious Yale University, which should be a wake-up call to Indian political leaders at all level, its officials said. more...

Kindling students' interest in issues about environment:-
...............................................................................
‘Messages on saving paper by using both sides to print out matter, saving electricity by remembering to switch off an appliance that is not in use, and segregating waste at source fill the wall space of the eco laboratory at Sacred Heart School in the city. more...

Himachal to be the 1st state to become carbon-neutral by 2020:Dhumal :-
...............................................................................
Himachal Pradesh would be the first state in the country to become carbon neutral by 2020 by undertaking "carbon smart growth", chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumalclaimed here today.more...

INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

DIT gears up to handle 'Aakash 2' tendering process:-
...............................................................................
The tendering process for rolling out the improved version of the world's cheapest tablet PC, Aakash, will be handled by the Department of Information Technology, official sources said.more

Nasscom: IT can improve healthcare in India:-
...............................................................................
Information technology (IT) can make healthcare accessible and affordable to more people in the country, industry lobby the National Association of Software and Services Companies ( Nasscom) said here. more...

The World Bank provides more aid for information technology development programmes :-
...............................................................................
The World Bank has approved a US$11 million concessional credit to Sri Lanka to assist Sri Lanka enhance its ICT services and to become a Middle Income Country. The implementing agency for this project is the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka.more...

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS (IPRs)

Law on patent protection for common man in works:-
...............................................................................
After plans to set up a venture fund for innovation, the government is now working on a legislation to protect utility inventions for the common man using the patent route.more...

Awareness on Intellectual Property Rights need of the day:-
...............................................................................
Presiding over the inaugural function of the one-day awareness programme on Intellectual Property Rights organised by the MSME Development Institute Mangalore branch at SDM Law College on Monday, he said that new innovations are coming up every day and in such a market, the importance of Intellectual Property awareness is need of the hour. more...

With GI powers, rich pickings for Mysore farmers :-
...............................................................................
The Indian Patents Office has appointed 94 design examiners to speed up the process of granting patents and clear a backlog of one lakh applications over the next three years. more...

Potato awarded special EU status :-
...............................................................................
A humble Irish potato has been bestowed with special status after being singled out for protection by European law makers. more...

MICRO, SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (MSMEs)

Working group on MSME growth proposes road map for KVIC:-
...............................................................................
The Working Group on Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) Growth for 12th Five Year Plan (2012-2017) Monday recommended a road map for projecting Khadi as well as Village Industries as pure, ethnic and environment friendly products in the global market. more...

MSME Min demands Rs 64K-cr budget allocation for 12th Plan:-
...............................................................................
The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Ministry has sought from the Planning Commission budget allocation of Rs 64,790 crore for the 12th Five Year Plan. more...

12th Plan Vision for MSME Growth :-
...............................................................................
The MSME sector of India is today at the gateway of global growth on the strength of competitive and quality product range. The Report of the Working Group on Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Growth for 12th Five Year Plan (2012-2017) feels facilitation from the Government is required to minimize transaction costs of technology upgradation, market penetration, modernization of infrastructure etc. more...

IOB gets Rs 100 cr MSME funding from SIDBI :-
...............................................................................
Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) on Friday received Rs 100 crore from Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), as part of refinancing agreement. SIDBI has lined up Rs 2,000 crore equity investment in the country's micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME). more...

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

  • International Leather Goods Fair 2012 | more |
  • Garment Technology Expo 2012| more |
  • Giftex Stationex & Jutex| more |

    		•
     
    :::: OUR INITIATIVES ::::


    Empowering women through Training

    As a part of our MPRLP wooden toy cluster development project in Shahdol and Sheopur districts of Madhya Pradesh ,we have empowered women folk of tribal people , by encouraging their participation in livelihood activities. Initially this thought met with serious resistance from all the villages as they did not find the idea of women working on machines acceptable. Slowly, as the men learnt the various aspects of the craft they realized that there is a possibility of women getting involved. So, we kept the idea of training women in finishing and coloring of the products so that they can work in families and add value to the business. The tribal people were convinced with this idea.

    The first batch reflected a grim participation of women as compared to men. The participation of women in training was as low as 8 females as compared to 100 males in Shahdol and 6 females as compared to 102 males in Sheopur. The situation changed enormously by the end of first year of the project. The participation of women in the training increased from an appreciable 50 females as compared to 150 males in Shahdol and 40 females as compared to 140 males in Sheopur. Presently the situation is the women folk of the villages are not only helping in the toy making, but also contributing to an important part of their livelihood.

     
    :::: KNOW YOUR CLUSTER ::::


    Agra Footwear Cluster

    Agra is situated in the West –South of Utter Pradesh. It has India’s most diverse footwear cluster. The Agra shoe industry is privileged with abundance of highly skilled workers and necessary ancillary units along with a well developed whole sale market.

    Agra is one of the largest footwear manufacturing center in India, with around 60,000 skilled workers and 5000 cottage, (home based) SMEs entrepreneurs producing about 90 million pairs of shoes and 110 million pairs of sandals , satisfying around 53% of the domestic requirement of the footwear. About 25% population of Agra city is directly or indirectly earning their lively hood through this industry.

    The highly labour intensive operations of the sector are often sub contracted to home based women workers. These typical production operations of labour in Agra indicate the strong linkage between the organized and decentralized sector.

    Source : Diagnostic study by SHRI G P AGARWAL
     
    :::: INFO CORNER ::::


    Geographical Indications and India

    Geographical indication is important in the country like India which has vast and diverse flora and fauna and rich traditions. Major issues in the developing countries currently are Biotechnology and Geographical Indications with Traditional Knowledge. Geographical Indications are indications that denotes or identifies a good as originated in the territory or a region, where a given quality, reputation, or other characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to its geographical origin. For example Darjeeling tea, Basmati Rice, Bikaneri Bhujia etc. are Geographical indications of India.

    In India the Geographical indications are protected by Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 which came in force from September 2003. This act defines a Geographical Indication, provides the mechanism for GI registration and defines an authorized user and registered proprietor. Till now 158 GIs have been registered in India.
    		 

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