Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: Telangana’s minister for Industries and Commerce, K.T. Rama Rao called out the central government for having no policy to promote the handloom sector, as per a report by The Hindu. Rao is also the working president of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) 

The minister said that the Centre was also scrapping the boards that were established to benefit the weavers and has instead imposed a five per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the sector.

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“Handlooms sector in India is next to the farming sector which would offer employment for lakhs of people. The cotton crop is being grown in a large chunk of land across the nation. We can leap forward if the Centre offers some encouragement. Instead, the Centre has been imposing restrictions and making the weavers’ sector the worst hit,” said Rama Rao.

The minister was addressing a gathering after welcoming former Rajya Sabha member Rapolu Ananda Bhaskar into the TRS party along with other members, reported The Hindu. 

“China has been producing 34 per cent of the fabric in the world. Countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are better placed than India in the handloom sector,” Rama Rao said.

He added that he along with the state’s Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has written several letters to the Centre requesting them to boost the handloom and power-loom sectors in the state. 

Stressing upon the financial assistance sought by the state, Rama Rao said, “they have not offered any assistance to Kakatiya Mega Textile Park at Warangal stating that there was no policy to assist for such big size parks.” He further highlighted that the Centre had cancelled eight schemes in the last eight years for the handloom sector. 

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The state government had recently launched an insurance scheme Nethanna Ku Bima on the lines of Rythu Bima, in association with LIC, that is likely to benefit 80,000 weavers in the handloom and powerloom sectors, informed the industries minister.