-DNA If we observe closely, the women entrepreneurs who run a variety of local small businesses are drivers of the local economy in many ways. Never ending stretches of backwaters and lush green coconut groves welcome you as you drive through the southern Indian state of Kerala. It is the only state in India where the sex ratio is of 1084 females per 1000 males. At 92%, Kerala has one of...

-The Indian Express Destruction of her murals shows the rot in the museum. The mindless destruction of Ganga Devi’s extraordinary last works at the Crafts Museum is terribly sad. It highlights the caste system between art and craft, the indifference to the creative integrity of a craftsperson’s vision. The quoted reaction of a Crafts Museum official, “Don’t worry, I’ll get another kohbar ghar painted” shows that, even for someone who claims...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Iconic Madhubani painter Ganga Devi's famed Kohbar Ghar or bridal nuptial chamber at the National Handicrafts and handlooms Museum here has been completely painted over. The Kohbar Ghar room was painted with murals over three to four months in the 1980s, when Ganga Devi, who passed away in 1991, was undergoing chemotherapy in a Delhi hospital. It had images of marriage scenes from Hindu scriptures, including those of...

-The Hindu Uzramma, supports decentralisation of cotton textile production chain to benefit farmers Hyderebad: Absence of affordable technology that can turn indigenous cotton into textile is one of the main reasons for cotton farmers’ suicide in the country, said Uzramma, a noted exponent of the handloom industry. Specific variant Delivering a talk on handmade fabrics and process organised at Jiddu Krishnamurti Centre here on Saturday, Ms. Uzramma said farmers are forced to grow only...

-Economic and Political Weekly The Indian weaver is dismissed in high places as an embarrassing anachronism, despite demand for his or her skills and products. In the new millennium, globalisation and a mindless acquiescence to imported notions of a good life threaten to take over, even as the West looks East for better concepts of sustainable living. Analysing today's crisis in the handloom sector, plagued by low-cost imitations from power looms,...