SRINAGAR: The Directorate of Handicrafts & Handloom, Kashmir signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with National Institute of Fashion Technology, India (NIFT) under the project titled ‘The Repository – Indian Textiles and Crafts’ (RTC).
The MoU was signed between Director, Handicrafts and Handloom, Kashmir Mehmood Ahmad Shah (JKAS) and Director (NRC), NIFT, Dr. Sanjeev Kumar.
The project is initiated by NIFT and is being sponsored by Development Commissioner (Handlooms) and Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), Ministry of Textiles, Government of India with an aim to develop a national knowledge portal titled Bhartiya Vastra Shilpa Kosh, to form an integrated system that will lay down a framework to weave the past and present status of textiles.
The Indian textile and craft repository is being planned as an online resource network for the textile, clothing and craft sector of India. The digital repository portal has been created with the objectives of digital preservation of the contemporary designs, digital archiving of tangible and intangible knowledge resources related to textile and crafts, dissemination of historical and contemporary information and narratives on Indian textiles, showcasing the creativity and diversity in traditional Indian textiles on interactive digital platform, creation of integrated database of craft practitioners for their promotion and welfare and creation of visual databank of images, films, audio-visuals, podcast lecture series on craft practitioners and designers for awareness and promotion purposes.
The scope of the MoU includes conduct of preliminary survey of the collections for assessing the status of the holdings, selection and hosting of whole or part of the holdings on RTC portal, providing support for creation of technical interfaces to harvest and use of meta-data, digitization of select holdings documentation and cataloging of selected undocumented resources, training and capacity building, content creation and coordination and promotion of RCT portal.
The Director, Handicrafts and Handloom, Kashmir while highlighting the significance of the MoU said, “we will try to support NIFT India in every possible way. It is a huge endeavor and shall go a long way in preserving the heritage and contemporary designs associated with Kashmir.”
