Reliance Industries: Reliance Retail boosts its “Handmade in India” programme

In a strong boost to its ‘Handmade in India’ programme,
Reliance Retail today announced that it is embarking on several new initiatives aimed
at showcasing authentic handcrafted products and promoting the rich Indian art forms
globally. The initiatives are designed to help revive various traditional Indian art and
craft forms, provide sustainable livelihood for hundreds and thousands of artisans and
craftsmen in the ecosystem and present a new platform to take the timeless Indian
crafts to consumer across the world.
The programme is being spearheaded by Reliance Retail’s handicrafts brand
Swadesh, which envisages an artisan-only dedicated store format for Handcrafted
products from across the country. The first Swadesh store is expected to open in the
second half of the current year and will house a wide range of products including
handmade textiles, handicrafts, agriculture products and other artisanal merchandise
sourced directly from artisans. Swadesh will also build a global marketplace to connect
Indian artisans and sellers of authentic handmade products to consumers across the
world.
“The future of Indian arts and crafts is poised at an exciting stage. Our past efforts
towards development of a robust infrastructure towards reviving dying art forms and
building and enabling ecosystem for local artisans, weavers and craftsmen have
yielded encouraging results. Our standalone handicrafts destination store format,
Swadesh is now on the anvil and will present India through its Art and Crafts and it will
showcase everything from Apparel, Home Textiles, Home décor, Furniture, Jewellery,
Wellness products and more,” says Isha Ambani, Director, Reliance Retail
Ventures Ltd.