NABARD Craft Mela 2023.

NABARD Andhra Pradesh Regional Office is organising5th NABARD Crafts Mela-2023 from 03 January 2023 – 12 January 2023in Maris Stella Indoor Stadium, Pantakala Road, Vijayawada.

The aim of the mela is to encourage the artisans engaged in various handicrafts and handlooms as well as the rural women engaged in production of different products to display their products and sell them at reasonable rates.

65 stalls have been set up in the exhibition displaying Products like handlooms from Venkatagiri, Mangalagiri, Pochampalli, Maheshwari(Madhya Pradesh), Kalamkari, Wooden toys of Kondapalli, Etikoppaka and Tirupathi, glass products of UP, Leather Puppets, Jute bags, jewellery, Decorative and other products from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal and Telangana.

Craft Mela was inaugurated by Smt. Vidadala Rajini, Hon’ble Minister for Health, Family Welfare and Medical Education. The programme was hosted by Shri M R Gopal, CGM, NABARD, Andhra Pradesh Regional Office and attended by Smt. Jhansi Rani, PIC, APCOB, Shri RS Reddy, MD, APCOB, Shri R Seetharamanjaneyulu, Chairperson, Guntur DCCB, Smt. Vijayalakshmi, Chairperson, AP Handicrafts Development Corporation and other Senior officials of Banks and Govt. Departments.

Shri N S Murthy, GM, NABARD welcomed the participants and briefed the gathering about the event and its importance.

Sri M R Gopal during his address explained the purpose of the exhibition and other activities being taken up by NABARD for the benefit of persons engaged in various artisanal activities. He advised the artisans to take understand the customer requirement and take appropriate feedback to improve their products. He also informed about the Stall-in-Mall initiative of NABARD where artisans are selling their products in Premier Mall in Vijayawada.

Smt. Vidadala Rajini, Hon’ble ministerfor Health, Family Welfare & Medical education during herinaugural address expressed her happiness and satisfaction for the efforts made by NABARD for arranging market support to rural artisans. She advised the artisans to fine tune their products with varying market requirements and learn the best practices from other artisans attending the mela.

All the dignitaries requested the media to provide wide publicity for the event to ensure maximum footfall.