Handicraft industry needs to adopt technology: Narendra Modi

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today said the handicraft industry should be expanded by "linking it with technology".

"Handicrafts industry is primarily run by generations (of families), and the need is to expand horizontally by linking it with technology," Modi said, addressing over thousand handicraft workers at 'Garvi Gurjari National Crafts Fair and Summit' here.

"The focus must be on changing the manufacturing process, ensuring durability and adapting innovations," he said.

"Times have changed. Earlier, handicrafts market was your surrounding areas. But in this age things are different. We have to make our product global. Global Positioning must be our focus and if we do that everything will change....We have to bring the artisans under one umbrella and create one brand name," he said.

"Government has its own limitations in providing jobs. Such a big country can not be run on (the back of) the job providers. It can only run on the idea of self-employment. When we will focus upon self-employment we can make people self-dependent and they in turn can live with dignity and self-respect," Modi said.

"Tourism and handicrafts should go together. We have to do proper marketing," he said.

"In Gujarat we have made effort to market handicrafts through tourism . 'Khushbu Gujarat Ki' advertisements market Kutch handicrafts. So the people who had visited Kutch must have bought some handicrafts from there. Recently in Kutch Rann Mahotsav (desert festival) handicrafts worth Rs two crore were sold in just two months," he claimed.