Giriraj Singh to Inaugurate Handloom Technology Centre at IIT Delhi on August 3

New Delhi, Jul 30 (KNN) Union Minister of Textiles Giriraj Singh will inaugurate the Centre of Excellence for Handloom Technology (CoE-HT) at IIT Delhi on August 3, 2026, with the facility established at an investment of Rs 11.99 crore .

Union Minister of State for Textiles Pabitra Margherita, Secretary Textiles Neelam Shami Rao and Development Commissioner (Handlooms) M. Beena are scheduled to attend the inauguration along with officials from the Ministry of Textiles and IIT Delhi.

The Centre will focus on loom modernisation and ergonomics, artificial intelligence, sustainability, functional innovation, digital knowledge systems and entrepreneurship. It will bring together academia, industry, designers, technologists, startups and handloom institutions for work related to the sector.

Over the next five years, the Centre will develop a national digital repository of handloom knowledge, AI-enabled tools and improved loom technologies. It will also support patents and research, startup incubation and training for weavers, faculty members and handloom professionals.

India's handloom sector supports more than 35 lakh weavers and allied workers, with women accounting for nearly 70 per cent of the workforce. 

The Centre will undertake research, capacity building and technology transfer in areas including productivity, technology adoption, traceability, authenticity and sustainability.

Five initiatives are scheduled to be launched during the inauguration. Handloom 4.0 will provide digital tools for assessing loom productivity and sustainability, while Handloom e-Vidya will serve as a digital learning and knowledge platform for weavers, students and other stakeholders.

HandloomX will operate as an accelerator and incubation platform for startups and innovations across the handloom value chain. Kalagriha Handloom Studio (GenZ Design Studio) will focus on digital visualisation, customisation and product authentication.

Threads of Valour, the fifth initiative, will use recycled defence textiles for developing handloom products.

(KNN Bureau)