Reliance Industries owners have doubled down on their initiatives indie by Ajio and Swadesh that solely focuses on promoting artisans and their products. The company said earlier on Monday that they have expanded the engagement in order to push the locally-made artisanal products with craftsmen over 30,000 and products over 40,000. During the ongoing festive season, Reliance Retail had showcased all these products from over 50 Geographical Indication craft clusters. These 30,000 craftsmen represent 600 art forms in clothing, handicrafts, textiles etc.<\/p>\n
Akhilesh Prasad, President of Reliance Fashion & Lifestyle quoted that the programmes are now bearing strong results. He also said that the programmes were able to help them in both expected ways, first to engage with an increasing number of craftsmen and second, ‘their ability to co-create and co-curate products’.<\/p>\n
AJIO is an online fashion marketplace that promotes products made by the local artisans and handcrafted products as well. They serve many categories such as apparel, jewellery, footwear, and home furnishing. Also, the online artisan store has provided direct employment to over 30,000 skilled artisans from across the country. Other than this, Swadesh is another brand offering 400 types of handicrafts, handmade textiles, agriculture products listed with Geographical Indications. Swadesh has a memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Textiles in order to enable sourcing of crafted products directly from artisans.<\/p>\n