Saarc nations to come for Kerala crafts festival

The items will be displayed at the 18-day International Handicrafts Exhibition to be hosted by Kerala Tourism at Iringal in the northern district of Calicut district as part of the Mega Season 9 of GKSF from December 20.

By T K Devasia

Published: Sun 20 Sep 2015, 7:38 PM

The Grand Kerala Shopping Festival (GKSF) being organised by the state government to develop the state as a shopping destination will feature ethnic items and artists from the Saarc nations in its ninth edition in December this year.
The items will be displayed at the 18-day International Handicrafts Exhibition to be hosted by Kerala Tourism at Iringal in the northern district of Calicut district as part of the Mega Season 9 of GKSF from December 20. Artisans from all the eight nations of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) will participate.
The External Affairs Ministry has agreed to bring in the artists from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan to the Sargaalaya Iringal International Crafts Festival, State Tourism Secretary G Kamala Vardhana Rao said. It will also have the participation of the United Nations. Further, efforts are on under the leadership of Tourism Minister A P Anilkumar and Shashi Tharoor, MP, to bring in more foreign countries to the crafts festival.
The 2011-founded Sargaalaya is a pioneering Kerala Tourism enterprise being managed by an eight-decade-old construction society, employing 90 artists housed in the 27 huts where they churn up 60-plus varieties of pan-Indian crafts.
GKSF is an annual shopping event which Kerala Tourism conducts in co-ordination with the state's departments of Industries & Commerce, Finance and Local Self Government with the aim of transforming God's Own Country into a hub for international shopping experience and help upgrade its traditional marketing infrastructure.
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