2-day craft bazaar begins at NIFT Shillong

Staff Reporter

Shillong, March 16: A two-day Craft Bazaar 2023 organised by the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) Shillong was inaugurated by the Director of Textiles & Handicrafts, Government of Arunachal Pradesh, Haj Dodung today at Umsawli.

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Dodung said that NIFT, Shillong has done commendable work by organising such a programme and creating a platform for artisans to showcase their work and sell their products.

He emphasized the importance of supporting artisans, who are the backbone of the economy, to preserve the tradition of arts and crafts, even in the fast-paced digital world.

The Commissioner and Secretary, Election Department & Chief Electoral Officer of Meghalaya, Frederick Roy Kharkongor, IAS spoke about the importance of contemporizing ethnicity and folk stories in handloom and handicraft of the region.

While speaking at the launch of the event, the Campus Director Shri Shankar Kumar Jha expressed his appreciation for the artisans’ work and emphasized the critical role that institutions such as NIFT play in promoting and showcasing the unique and creative crafts of India globally in collaboration with artisan community.

The Craft Bazaar is a unique initiative of the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, designed to provide a platform for artisans of Handicrafts and Handlooms to showcase their work and sell their products.

Artisans from 23 clusters of North East India were invited to participate in the Craft Bazaar 2023, where they displayed their unique and creative crafts. The display left the attendees impressed and fascinated, some of the crafts on display included native beads and Viko from Nagaland, handlooms from Aizawl and Guwahati and weaving of Meghalaya.

The two-day Craft Bazaar will conclude on March 17, 2023, and is open to the general public, who can visit the NIFT campus and buy handicrafts and handlooms directly from the artisans.

NIFT-Shillong to host 2-day Craft bazaar

Staff Reporter

Shillong, March 15: The National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Shillong will be hosting a two-day Craft Bazaar on March 16-17 at the NIFT campus in Umsawli Mawpat.

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The event is inspired by Father of the Nation-Mahatma Gandhi’s “Swadeshi Movement” and will be showcasing a diverse range of handloom and handicrafts from North East India.

Craft Bazaar 2023 is intended to promote and empower artisans, weavers and entrepreneurs of the North Eastern Region. The Chief Guest for the occassion will be Haj Dodung, Director of Textiles & Handicrafts, Government of Arunachal Pradesh. The Inaugural function is scheduled to start at 10 A.M.

About 14 stalls will be exhibiting and selling exquisite works of 22 artisans and weavers from the NE region including Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, and Meghalaya.

The stalls will be showcasing products like Cane-Bamboo, Jewelry, Handloom, Weaving, Embroidery, Dry Flowers, Black Pottery, Textiles, and many more.

Shillong gets Digital design labs for livelihood at Don Bosco Technical School

Staff Reporter

Shillong, March 12: Secretary, NEC, K Moses Chalai inaugurated the project namely Digital Design Labs for Livelihood Generation recently here at Don Bosco Technical School, Shillong.

Present in the event were Sherry Lalthangzo, Economic Adviser (E&M), NEC, S Sundar, MD, AMTRON, Guwahati, Fr.  Sagi Stephan of Don Bosco Technical School, Shillong, Tanung Jamoh, Director (S&T), NEC, ALIMCO officers and other Senior Officers of NEC.

This project is being funded by NEC at a cost of about Rs. 5 crore combined with ACC Institute, Senapati, Manipur. The Centres developed will be providing training of use case deployment for technologies namely Graphic Designing and Animation with high end Softwares.

Later on, it will move towards 3D printing, 5G applications, digital designing of training/ instructional videos/3D Animations in different languages including local North Eastern Languages.

The day marks one of the modest initiatives in NER towards Digital and 4.0 Industry journey which will open up to huge scope and opportunities ahead in Digital space in the days to come. NEC along with the Ministry of IB is starting a training programme in March 2023 namely Animation 3D courses for 100 youths of NER in Delhi.

Very soon, NEC along with the Ministry of DoNER and AMTRON will take up 3D Printing project in the 8 NER States, which would be a revolutionary move. Also, along with AMTRON, NEC will also take up 5G Applications training in the 8 NER States, which will be up and running in the next 2 or 3 months again to open up multiple opportunities as 5G is already underway. NER is already quite challenged in terms of economic transformation and job opportunities particularly for the youth.

This initiative is in line with the vision of the Prime Minister which he spoke about when he addressed the NEC Plenary in Shillong in 2016 and emphasized the need for economic transformation in the NER region from time to time.