Handicraft, pottery clusters proposed in Mysore

The Mysore District Industries Centre has proposed to develop two clusters, one for handicraft at Belatvadi and the other for pottery, in Mysore.

They will then be sent to the Centre shortly under the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Initiative (MSMEDI).

Under the scheme, a maximum assistance of Rs 10 crore is available for initiating cluster development programmes for groups of small-scale units by providing support services and specialised consultancy for homogeneous groups over a period of time, Joint Director for Industries M Shivashankar said today.

At Belatvadi, around 800 artisans are engaged in handicraft and supplying the items to the Karnataka Handicrafts Development Corporation. The Shalivahana Multipurpose Industrial Co-operative Society has come forward for the pottery-making cluster. Around 300 pot-makers are engaged in the traditional work at 3-4 centres in Mysore taluk.

MSMEDI State Director Dhillon highlighted the schemes available to support micro and SMEs and promote entrepreneurship under the MSMEDI. The MSMEDI has taken up a cluster development proposal for readymade garments in Bangalore.

Mysore had scope for clusters exclusively for handicrafts, agarbathi, granite cutting and pottery making. The MSMEDI was ready to help local artisans and industrialists, he said at the press meet in Mysore.

To create awareness to avail of the benefits of the MSMEDI schemes among industrialists and industry organisations, the institute's officers were visiting taluks and conducting programmes. It had so far distributed Rs 7-8 lakh under the ISO 9000ôISO 14001 certification reimbursement scheme.

There are over 3.34 lakh SSI units in Karnataka with an investment of Rs 7,356 lakh, providing employment for about 18,87,111 people as on March-end 2006.

As part of this campaign, the Institute was organising four programmes in Mysore, under the auspices of the Mysore Industries Association (MIA) during March. They are: Packaging for exports on March 16, industrial motivation campaign on ISO 9000 on March 19, buyer-seller meet-cum-exhibition on garments on March 22-23 and vendor development on March 23.

MIA General Secretary Suresh Kumar Jain said the Association had taken up an industrial survey in Mysore and would come out with an areawise product directory.

Around 2,000 SSIs were located in the 5,310-acre industrial area in and around Mysore. The sick units were about 59 per cent. However, the situation changed after the 1995-96 slowdown and many SSIs were performing better now.

The condition of industrial areas had also improved, said MIA President P Viswanath.