The meeting was attended by State Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand along with senior officials of the Ministry of Textiles and Development Commissioners for Handloom and Handicrafts. Minister of Textiles and Information & Broadcasting Smriti Zubin Irani presided over the meeting along with Minister of State for Textiles Ajay Tamta and Secretary Textiles, Anant Kumar Singh.

Textile Minister Irani speaking on this occasion, mentioned again the belief in cooperative federalism and appealed to State Ministers and representatives to play a pivotal role in decision making for the growth of the textiles sector. The Minister requested officials at the Centre and the States to ensure that the benefits of all Government of India schemes, like Ujjwala Yojana, Swachhta Abhiyan, and reach the beneficiaries along with Textiles Ministry initiatives highlighting the requirement for all-round development of weavers and artisans. India Handloom Brand launched by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, is a bridge between weavers, manufacturers and consumers, ensuring increased earnings for weavers and quality products for consumers as added by her.

The Minister urged everyone present at the meeting to support the stakeholders to register their products with India Handloom Brand and requested State Ministers to set targets and regularly review activities at Handloom and Handicraft clusters.

She also explained further by laying stress on the need for educating weavers and artisans and their families by encouraging them to enroll with NIOS and IGNOU through initiatives taken by the Ministry of Textiles.

In a bid to facilitate better reach of the schemes rolled out by the government for the sector, a meeting was held between the State Textile Ministers in New Delhi for taking comprehensive view on the schemes of Government of India for Handloom and Handicraft sectors comprising of a fair share of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).