Skill, labour, talent for MSMEs: Government’s craft fair Hunar Haat, which focuses on enabling micro-businesses involving artisans and craftsmen to sell and promote their products, has provided “employment and employment opportunities to over 5 lakh artisans, craftsmen, culinary experts and other people associated with them in the last 5 years,” Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Tuesday as the fair is set to resume after a seven-month hiatus due to Covid and the following lockdown. Vocal for Local-themed Haat will be organised in Delhi during November 11-22 with over 100 stalls.

The Minority Affairs Ministry, which had launched Hunar Haat in FY17 as a component of the Upgrading the Skills and Training in Traditional Arts/ Crafts for Development (USTTAD) scheme launched on May 15, 2015, to focus on preserving the heritage of traditional arts of minorities, has organised over 2 dozen such fairs across India. Jaipur, Chandigarh, Indore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, India Gate, New Delhi, Ranchi, Kota, and Surat/Ahmedabad are other cities are the proposed locations for Hunar Haats in FY21, according to the ministry’s website.

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Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Monday urged people to buy local products this Diwali towards supporting the government’s Vocal for Local campaign to promote Indian small businesses. “Celebrating Diwali with local products will give a new boost to the economy,” Modi had said while inaugurating various projects in his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi. Last month, traders’ body CAIT had announced that Chinese exporters to India are likely to suffer Rs 40,000 crore business loss during Diwali season as the local traders are geared up to boycott the sale of goods from China. Out of around Rs 70,000 crore business done during Diwali season by traders, goods worth around Rs 40,000 crore were imported from China in the past years, according to National President B. C. Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal.