West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee recently said Microsoft will create an e-commerce platform connecting six lakh weavers in the state. The firm had announced the launch of a new e-commerce platform for handloom weavers under its ‘Project ReWeave’. The project will begin from Nadia district and help spur weavers’ income by 25 per cent, Banerjee said. The platform would help artisans connect directly with buyers, enabling them to expand to newer customers and markets, a news agency report quoted her as saying. Project ReWeave was launched in partnership with Chaitanya Bharati, a Vishakhapatnam-based non-profit organization, in Telangana to ensure the revival of the traditional handloom art forms in that state in 2016. The e-marketplace would help sell to a broad set of customers, support weavers in increasing their income, while also reviving traditional forgotten Indian art, Microsoft India said. Banerjee also said Microsoft will undertake the ‘Project Sangam’, which seeks to empower municipal functionaries to run community training courses. The company, in association with the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), has curated a special curriculum in ‘CAD and Colour for Handloom Weaving’ to provide digital training in handloom design.
