'Silk Mark' launched in Hyd

Scheme aimed at protecting consumers from spurious goods

Taking a cue from other quality assurance labels like Woolmark, the Silk Mark Organisation of India (SMOI) launched the Silk Mark scheme in Hyderabad on Wednesday. Silk Mark has already been launched in cities like Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai.

It will also be launched in Varanasi and Kanchipuram among other cities soon.

Addressing a press conference, Vandana Kumar, chief executive of SMOI, said that the silk industry in India lacks in standards due to which a lot of blended fabrics are being sold as pure silk.

"Therefore, to protect the consumers from spurious goods, the organisation has come up with Silk Mark," she added. SMOI is sponsored by the Central Silk Board, ministry of textiles, Government of India.

"Besides increasing domestic consumption of pure silk, our larger aim is to build the brand equity of Indian silk in the international market as the industry in India faces a threat with the opening up of the quota regime," Vandana said, adding that they would take the mark internationally too. The organisation is looking at providing some quality assurance mechanism to zari as well.

Silk Mark includes a paper tag besides a high-security e-beam hologram that is tamper-proof and non-reusable.

The labels are numbered and coded in such a way that every label can be identified for its authorised user, the period of use etc. Each label will cost Rs 2. However, a person will first have to become a member of SMOI before becoming a user of Silk Mark.

While the ordinary membership fee is Rs 5,000, it is Rs 100 for an associate member.

Besides, to become an authorised user, the member has to pay separate fees depending on the turnover. The fees for an authorised user range from Rs 3,000 for a person having a turnover of less than Rs 50 lakh to Rs 10,000 for a turnover of over Rs 1 crore.

The fees might make the products bearing the Silk Mark a bit costlier. "People will not mind paying a little more for quality products," Vandana said.

The organisation currently has 220 members out of which 180 are authorised users. About seven lakh labelled silk products are already in the market across the country.

Silk exports from India have touched the Rs 2,500-crore mark with the biggest markets being the US and Europe.

In terms of domestic numbers, around 25,000 metric tonnes of silk were consumed in India out of which 16,000 metric tonnes were produced domestically and 9,000 metric tonnes were imported from countries like China.