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IMPACTFUL POLICY RESEARCH IN SOCIAL SCIENCE

Proposal Details

Proposal Reference P3662

Number :

Proposal Status :
Applied

Domain : Employment Skills and Rural Transformation

Sub Domain : Skills and Employability

Project Title : The ‘GI’ tag Imperative: Towards Sustainability & Raising Income level of
Weavers.

Project Summary : Handicraft and handloom does not only represent an industry in India but also
represent heart and soul of India. It reflects the cultural richness and diversity of
India and also supports many families in earning their bread and butter.Union
Ministry of Commerce and Industry has launched a mega campaign for promoting
products closely associated with their geographical origin. GI (Geographical
Indication) Tag is one of the ways to protect the identity of our handloom product
and to protect our heritage. This research will discuss about ways and skills in
which the traditional Banarasi weavers can keep align with changing customer
perceptions and thus enhance their employment skills and also to bring about
tangible rural transformation, by enhancing employment skills and measures for
preventing migration to other cities and also preventing them to switch to other
jobs as unskilled laborers.

Duration of Project in 6
Months :

Proposal Budget :
4,00,000.0

Introduction of the Traditional handloom Industry which demonstrates the richness and diversity of
proposed study : Indian culture and is the second-largest employment provider for the rural
population in India after agriculture, with over 4.5 crore people directly involved in
the production, is losing its glow because of the low cost alternatives and
changing fashion trends. However with the “Make in India” campaign and
Planning Commission giving it due place and priority we hope that it regains its
unique identity.
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Major existing research works reviewed :
International :
National :
Identification of Research
gap :
Framework and methods
proposed for research :
Innovativeness in the
proposed research :
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According to Sarah Bowen (2010), GI status is very unique in the sense that it
provides ‘a means of ensuring that control over production and sales of a
product stays within a local area, but at the same time [it] makes use of extra
local [foreign] markets’. According to Reviron, Mottet and Beni (2009), the
value of GI is a mixture of economic, cultural and social values which is
derived from the particular locality. In marketing terms, this leads to an
increased potential of the consumers to pay (Bramley, 2011).
Manisha Choudhari (2016), has evidenced in her report that GI tag has proven
to be beneficial for products like Darjeeling Tea, Silver Felligree etc. in securing
their identity worldwide and making the business better but lack of awareness
amongst practitioners of these products has not reaped the benefits as
predicted. WTO report titled, ‘Geographical Indications: Linking products and
their origins’ states that “GI can be a valuable tool for export differentiation. As
much as 85% of French wine exports use GIs on their labels, as do 80% of all
spirits exported from EU. In exporting, GI can be valuable by ‘setting the bar’ or
becoming the standard reference for that product in its distribution chain. In
certain instances, national and international retailers have made the
designation a condition of their agreeing to carry the product”.
It has been evident and experienced that products with a GI tag get premium
pricing, thus helping exporters earn better, and which in turn incentivises
producers. With premium pricing, producers of a GI product (especially in rural
areas), can help improve their living conditions by means of this increased
income. From the above stated problem, it is clear that there is a need to act fast
to save the traditional Indian handloom industry and also make full use of the GI
certifications and its benefits. The only way to do that is by: 1. Identifying the
current best practices and innovations adopted by producers and traders for
enhancing sales of selected GI products 2. To assess the shortcomings and gaps
in efforts made so far for unlocking the commercial potential of selected GI
products. But all the above gaps are still not noticed and worked upon.This
research project will look into these areas
1. Field Visits, In-depth Interviews and Stakeholder Meetings In the selected area
(Varanasi), field visits will be conducted to identify and conduct the Gap Analysis
Stake holder meets and interviews with experts and producers/ artisans will be
the primary mode of collection of data. 6 areas have been selected for field
research, keeping in mind the need to ensure regional representation as well as
coverage of the GI Product. In the first part of the study, field visits will be
undertaken to clusters of selected GI products. During these visits, the researcher
will meet various weavers/artisans, master-weavers and traders and understand
the processes involved and skills required in the production and sales of these
products, the inter-linkages between different players, the issues faced by them
and the marketing initiatives undertaken so far. 2. Compilation and analysis of key
insights During the course of the study, insights, based on quantitative survey and
qualitative in-depth interviews, will be compiled and analyzed, to identify key
issues and challenges as well possible areas for future action. Based upon the
analysis of the gaps and the areas critical for exploiting the marketing potential,
recommendations and suitable strategies will be made covering different aspects
of branding and marketing strategy for GI products in both Indian and
International Markets.
The recent government has been looking at various schemes and policies to help
the Handloom Sector in the wake of which the government has launched the
observance of ‘National Handloom Day’ and the ‘Handloom Mark’ to enhance
sales in the domestic and the international market. The handloom industry, both in
co-operative and private sector, with its vast rural work force of weaver
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communities is confronted with the challenge of competitive economic
environment. This research works on innovative marketing strategy viz. GI
tagging to improve the employability in this sector.

Expected Outputs such

Based on the study, data will be analysed and findings will be published in form of
as papers, report, book, reports to further recommend policies to improve employability of weavers by
document, dataset: promoting GI Tagged product.

Relevance of the
The Hon’ble Finance Minister in the Budget speech 2014-15 announced setting
proposed study for up of Trade Facilitation Centre and Crafts Museum to develop and promote
policy-making : handloom products and carry forward the rich traditions of handlooms of
Varanasi. The proposed research will be a step to the initiative and would suggest
strategies to aware the weavers so as to retain them in the trade and popularise
the product throughout the globe.

Relevance of the The branding and marketing of these products and other benefits of GI tag cannot
proposed study for be availed unless this scheme is popularized among weavers and middlemen.
society : Awareness about GI tag and its practice among weavers is the need of the hour
and steps should be taken in this regard as quickly as possible.Also it will
increase the employability & reduce migration to cities.

Proposal Budget :

Heads of
Number Months Rate/Month Amount
Expenditure

1. Research Staff 1,80,000.0

(a) Research 1,20,000.0

1 6 20000
Associate

(b) Research 0.0

0 0 0
Assistant

(c) Field 60,000.0

1 4 15000
Investigator

2. Field Work NA NA NA 1,40,000.0

3. Equipment and 40,000.0

NA NA NA
Study Material

4. Contingency NA NA NA 10,000.0

5.
Workshops/Seminars NA NA NA 10,000.0

as part of the Study

Total 3,80,000.0

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Heads of
Number Months Rate/Month Amount
Expenditure

6. Institutional 20,000.0
NA NA NA
overheads

Total (Rs) 4,00,000.0

Justification of different heads of budget:

1. Research Staff :
Research Stipend Remuneration for Field Investigator 60000 15000 * 4
Remuneration for Research Associate 120000 20000 * 6

2. Field Work :
Travel for Field Investigator from Delhi to Varanasi Rs.85000 (Travel fare,
accommodation, subsistence and car rental. Time will be used to
interview/research/meetings etc.) Travel for Researcher Associate from Delhi
to Varanasi Rs.55000 T
3. Equipment and study
Acquisition of softwares like SPSS, R etc. Dataset like Bloomberg Dataset
materials : from Ministry (Dataset and softwares to be used for data analysis and
published secondary data.)

Affiliation Detail :

State :
Uttar Pradesh

District :
Ghaziabad

Institute :
ACCF, Amity University

Institute Type: State Private Universities

Management Type: Private

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