India: Mysore silk sarees online store launched by KSIC
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PublishDate:
2005-08-23 15:02:00
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KOCHI:Combining the heritage of traditional Mysore silk weaving with modern marketing techniques, the Karnataka Silk Industries Corporation (KSIC) Ltd. has started online selling of the renowned silk sarees and fabrics, KSIC Managing Director P Vijayan said on August 21.
Addressing a press conference on the occasion of the KSIC holding a three-day exhibition of its sarees and dress materials here from today, Mr Vijayan said customers all over the world could now access the full range of KSIC products at its website ksicsilk.com.
The products would reach the customers within two weeks and payments would be accepted online through credit cards, he added.
Mr Vijayan said the public sector KSIC, which was a BIFR company from 1995, had been restructured by the Karnataka Government in 2003 by pumping in Rs 17.65 crore for a massive VRS programme. More than 900 employees had availed of the VRS offer and two of the four unviable units had been shut down.
The corporation presently had 841 employees including the sales staff and workers in the two remaining weaving units.
The state government, which had recognised Mysore Sandal Soap and Mysore Silk as ''heritage industries'', had also converted outstanding loans amounting to Rs 22.19 crore into equity, enabling the ailing KSIC to come out of the BIFR net.
Stating that the capacity utilisation at the KSIC units had gone upto 80 per cent now from 25 per cent earlier, Mr Vijayan said the corporation produced 30,000 meters of silk yarn per year.
It had been able to reduce its losses from Rs 18 crore during 2003-04 to Rs 4.5 crore during 2004-05. The company had broken even during the first quarter of this financial year and was hoping to end the year with some profits, he added.
Earlier, Ernakulam District Collector A P M Mohammed Hanish inaugurated the exhibition, which will be on it till August 23 before moving to Thiruvananthapuram, from August 25 to 28.