The Ministry of Textiles has already been conferring Sant Kabir Awards, National Awards and National Merit Certificates to handloom weavers for excellence in the field of handloom sector. But starting this year, the government of India will confer national awards for excellence in design development and marketing of handloom products for which entries has been invited, this was informed by Ministry of Textile in a press release on Tuesday.

The awards have been instituted in accordance with the advice given by Hon'ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on the occasion of first National Handloom Day on 7th August 2015; the PM said that Ministry of Textiles may institute awards in the fields of Design Development for promotion of handloom products and Marketing of handloom products.

Three National Awards and six National Merit Awards in the field of Design Development for promotion of handloom products, and five National Awards and 10 National Merit awards in the field of Marketing of handloom products have been constituted by the Ministry of Textiles.

The awards will be given for outstanding contribution in the following categories.

Eligible categories for awards in the field of Design Development for promotion of handloom products:

i) Institutions including NGOs working in the hand loom sector.

ii) Individual designers.

iii)Young designers (not more than 35 years of age).

Eligible categories for awards in the field of Marketing of handloom products:

(i) Primary cooperative societies

(ii) Apex cooperative societies

(iii) E-commerce platforms

(iv) Exporters

(v) Private entities/entrepreneurs.

Advertisement regarding submission of entries etc. from the eligible agencies has already been published in Hindi, in English and in vernacular languages all over the country in all important regional/national newspapers on 7th February, 2016.

The guidelines and schedule of calendar along with application forms can also be downloaded from the website of DC (Handlooms) - www.handlooms.nic.in. The last date for submission of entries is 15.03.2016.

The award will be conferred to selected persons/institutions on the occasion of celebration of National Handloom Day, on 7th August 2016.