New Delhi: Ministry of Textiles on Tuesday evening presented a curtain raiser to ‘Textiles India 2017’ – positioned as the first ever global B2B Textile and handicrafts event in India, at the Crafts Museum in the national capital.

Textiles India 2017 is scheduled to be held at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar from June 30 to July 2, 2017. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to inaugurate this event. According to Textile ministry, it will be a landmark global trade event for the Indian Textile and handicraft Sector that will showcase the entire range of textile products from ‘Fibre to Fashion’.

Textile India 2017 shall have more than 1000 stalls and witness the presence of over 2500 discerning International buyers, agents, designers, retail chains from across the world, and 15000 domestic buyers. The three day event will include global conference on the last day with six themes to be chaired by concerned Union ministers and the Valedictory session presided over by the Union Finance Minister. Over 33 roundtables will be held on issues of concern for the various segments of textiles and handicrafts on the 2nd day i.e., 1st July, with prominent international speakers & industry leaders.

The curtain raiser event hosted by the Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India under the leadership of Minister of Textiles, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani and Minister of State, Shri Ajay Tamta in Delhi witnessed an inspiring experience of the major strands of the textile story of India as represented by the leading crafts persons and fashion designers of the country. The presentation was a celebration of the textiles and handicrafts of India bringing to the fore the inspiring vision of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi – “From Farm to Fibre, Fibre to Factory, Factory to Fashion, Fashion to Foreign.”

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Textiles, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani said that the spectrum of Indian textiles is extremely diverse and its history is world renowned. Textiles India 2017 holds the promise of becoming a landmark annual trade event for the Indian textiles and apparel industry at the global level. With this curtain raiser, we are celebrating the significant achievements of our textile industry and the enormous promise of spectacular growth over the next few years. Today we applaud the community which manufactures the diverse fabrics, apparel and textiles in the country and creates handcrafted brilliance for the world to experience.

The Crafts Village was vibrant with unique exhibits celebrating the diverse crafts and textiles of India and the skills of the weavers and craftsmen from across the country, who were especially invited to be a part of this evening. The artisans presented live demonstrations showcasing the potential of the products for international markets. The international delegates that attended were extremely appreciative of the attention to detail and incredible hand-work of these artisans. The different mediums and the award winning artisans are as below:

Carpet Weaving: Mr. Fakre Alam(Mirzapur)
White Metal work(Chitai): Mr. Mohd. Yusuf and Farooq Khan(both National Awardee)
Barmer Embroidery: Mr. Makhna Ram
Wood Indlay: Mr. Firoz Khan(National Awardee) and Mr. Kamal Matharu(National Awardee)
Crewel Embroidery: Mr. Noor Mohd. Bhat, Srinagar(National Awardee)

The evening saw the presence of political dignitaries, ambassadors of textile partner countries industrialists, industry associations, leading fashion and media houses including Dr. Arvind Panagariya, Vice Chairman, NITI Ayog, H.E. Lorenzo Angeloni, Ambassador of Italy, H.E. Mrs. Chitraganee Wagiswara, H.E. Ms Melba Pria, Ambassador, Mexico, H.E. Mr. Dalton Sembering, Ambassador, Indonesia, H.E. Mr. Cho Hyun, Ambassador, South Korea, Ms. Shobhana Bhartia, Hindustan Times, Mr. Arun Poorie, Chairman & Editor-in-Chief, India Today, Mr. Muzaffar Ali, and Mr.Tarun Tahiliani.

A representation of artisans, weavers, emerging & established designers from across the country celebrated the special preview to Textiles India 2017. The fashion designers and craftsmen showcased the strength of the Indian textiles sector in Cotton, Silk, Wool, Woven & hand-printed, Embroidered as well as Modern & Futuristic textiles.
The textile story was narrated through the works of Abraham & Thakore, Anita Dongre, Anuj Bhutani, Anuradha Pegu, Amit Aggarwal, Chaman Premji, Good Earth, Hemant Agarwal, Kaleekal, Masaba Gupta, Madhu Jain, Manish Arora, Manish Malhotra, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Rahul Misra, Ritu Kumar, Rimzim Dadu, Rohit Bal, Sanjay Garg, Sabyasachi, Samant Chauhan, Shades of India – Mandeep Nagi, Sunita Shankar, Suket Dhir, Wendell Rodricks & Tarun Tahiliani.

With inputs from PIB