Date:17/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/17/stories/2007061750290400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Artisans’ group gets export award

Staff Reporter

Toehold Artisans Collaborative makes Kolhapuri chappals

Proud winners: Athani Savitri Ramavatare (left) and Balabai Maruthi Kamble who were give the FKCCI’s best exporter award at a function in Bangalore on Saturday.

Bangalore: Savithri Ramavatare and Balabai Maruti Kamble always believed they would make it big one day with their cottage industry that produces Kolhapuri chappals in Athani, Belgaum. Their traditional vocation evolved into the Toehold Artisans Collaborative, which now comprises 200 families and exports mainly to the U.K., Australia, Japan and Belgium.

The collaborative on Saturday received the ‘best exporter award from the most backward taluk’ at the Export Excellence Award 2006-07 organised by the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) here on Saturday, where the special focus was on backward taluks.

Incentives sought

Incentives must be given to value-added products, especially in backward districts, said Chief Secretary P.B. Mahishi, speaking at the function. “It is time that we moved from primary products to value-added exports that meet international standards,” he said. “In time, we must evolve our own standards and strive to meet them.”

J.R. Bangera, Chairman, International Trade Committee, FKCCI, lamenting the fact that no applications were received from some of the State’s most backward districts such as Chitradurga and Koppal, said the federation “will join hands with the VITC and other like-minded agencies to conduct export-related programmes in these areas and enable at least a few exporters to germinate in these districts.”

Releasing the Karnataka State Exporters Directory, R.C. Purohit, president, FKCCI, said that in the recent past Karnataka had been witnessing an exponential growth on the export front, having crossed the Rs. 1 lakh crore mark in 2006-07. However, he noted that as much as 80 per cent of the exports was being contributed by just a handful of districts such as Bangalore, Mangalore, Bellary and Mysore.

Large database

The directory, also launched in digital format, has a database of 3,500 exporters.

The awardees included Rajesh Exports Ltd., Bangalore; Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd., Bidadi; and Infosys Technologies Ltd., Bangalore, under the manufacturer, merchant and services categories respectively.