Already struggling to survive and compete with cheaper machine-made goods, the added burden of GST compliance will decimate self-employed artisans. The cost of GST non-compliance is doubled when the formal economy refuses to buy from the local crafts industry. Credit: Meeta Mastani The transition to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime was sold as […]
M N Buch Memorial Lecture Bhopal, October 5, 2015 It is a privilege to be here in Bhopal with Nirmalaji and so many who knew Mahesh Buch and shared his passion for this, his karmabhoomi. To transmit Bhopal to future generations as more liveable and more beautiful was both vision and mission for Mahesh. Bhopal […]
Design research in and for India has a history. The 1958 India Report by Charles and Ray Eames – from which flowered design education and the development of a contemporary profession of Indian design – underlined research, training and service as overlapping, supportive and mutually corrective. The Eames’ brilliant meditation on the lota with its […]
C G Road is Ahmedabad’s pride: a new shopping boulevard that turns its back on the crowded bazaars of this medieval city. Steel and glass store fronts, coffee shops, Pizza Hut, the latest in home entertainment, sportswear, fashion and ethnic chic: international brand names from India and overseas, flashing in neon to attract Ahmedabad’s affluent […]
Uttranchal – an opportunity Issues of conservation that affect hill stations and hill areas take on particular significance in Uttranchal. The creation of this new state was founded on a struggle for equity in the ownership and use of natural resources. Local wisdom here has always recognized that human progress and protection of the environment […]
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Broom-making is an extremely relevant example of using specialised craft skills to create items of everyday use – of the merging of utilitarianism and craft technique and skill in the artisans’ hands. Broom-makers from village Kamedh in Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, like the family of Sharada Verma, have been making brooms – from the leaves […]
A recent headline in Canada’s national newspaper reads: “Artisans drowning in global monoculture” (Globe and Mail, October 31, p. C16). The article focuses on the impact of Western commercial products, open markets and mass media on the decline of artisan activity worldwide. This is not news to India’s artisans who are struggling for survival or who have moved away from traditional […]
Soon after Independence in 1947, India incorporated handicraft and handloom production as important elements in ts new development objectives. The Industrial Resolution of 1948 recognized the need to protect cottage and small-scale production against competition from mass manufacture. The First Five-Year Plan reserved certain spheres of production exclusively for hand industries. A network of support organizations for the sector was […]