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Weavers
The 'recent' suicide' of a weaver at Sircilla in Telangana has brought to the fore the alleged lack of work and adequate income in this textile hub, with the issue leading to a war of words between the opposition BRS and the Congress. Kudikyala Nagaraju recently died by suicide as he was unable to repay his debts and this came as a reminder of the tragedy of weavers ending their lives in the past. While it is being claimed 10 weavers have ended their life so far this year, the government has pegged the number at six, even as the BRS attacked the ruling Congress over the matter. Nagaraju (47), a weaver, took his life by consuming acid at Sircilla recently. "My husband borrowed some amount and failed to repay the lenders. He did not have the livelihood to take care of me and our two sons," Nagaraju's wife Lavanya told PTI. Similar is the story of Adicherla Sai Kumar (25) who committed 'suicide' in April this year as he was unable to repay the money he borrowed. "My brother was work
Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a Rs 13,000 crore PM Vishwakarma scheme that will benefit about 30 lakh traditional artisans and craftsmen, including weavers, goldsmiths, blacksmiths, laundry workers, and barbers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the announcement about the scheme in his Independence Day address on Tuesday. Under the scheme, craftsmen will be provided a subsidised loan of Rs 1 lakh in the first tranche, and another Rs 2 lakh in the second tranche, communications minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said after the Cabinet meeting. The loans will be provided at a concessional interest rate of 5 per cent. On Tuesday, the prime minister announced that the scheme will be launched on Vishwakarma Jayanti on September 17.
The government will launch an outreach programme this year to train artisans, weavers and jewellery manufacturers to help them list their products on e-commerce platforms and tap export opportunities, a top official said on Tuesday. Highlighting the "huge export potential" of the one district one product (ODOP) scheme, ready-made garments, gems and jewellery and over-the-counter products, Director General Foreign Trade Santosh Kumar Sarangi said an outreach programme will be rolled out this year to impart training on how to onboard e-commerce platforms and display and market products. "We are going to launch a huge outreach programme where we will train our artisans, weavers, jewellery manufacturers, to onboard e-commerce platforms and export their products directly from there, without being dependent on anyone else," Sarangi said at an event.
A post Goods and Services Tax (GST) hike in prices of fully drawn yarn (FDY) and partially oriented yarn (POY) by 5-7 per cent has sent the synthetic textile weaving industry reeling under margin pressures. The price hike has been caused by rising raw material prices such as purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and monoethylene glycol (MEG) which have spiked on the back of rising crude prices.However, at a time when several weavers, processors and traders are yet to register under GSTN, along with lack of clarity over accumulated duty credit and reverse charge mechanism (RCM), decentralised powerlooms and textile processing units are finding it tough to sustain under rising input costs."There is still uncertainty in the industry since registration process is still going on. Weavers, processors and traders are not in the position to buy or sell. At such a time, a price hike in raw materials is having a significant impact on our input costs as well as margins," said Ashish Gujarati, ...