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‘Now that India has taken the initiative to create the Silk Mark, we expect other countries to show interest’

When did you feel the need for a Silk Mark?

When we made enquiries in the industry, there definitely was a feeling to have something to certify purity because the market was being flooded with blends and consumers were getting fooled easily into paying silk prices for products that were not pure silk.

Where will the Silk Mark Organisation of India (SMOI) be based?

The SMOI will be headquartered in Bangalore but we will have Regional Offices in Mumbai and all other major metros and silk producing centres like Assam (Guwahati and Sualkachi), Bhagalpur, Srinagar (for carpets) and even in Kanchipuram apart from Chennai.

Will the SMOI register the logo internationally?

We have registered the Silk Mark logo and we are hoping to form an international affiliation of all silk producing countries. So far, no initiative was taken by these nations, especially China, to develop a certification like Silk Mark. Now that we have taken the initiative, we expect other countries to show interest. Meanwhile, to increase visibility and credibility of Silk Mark in the international markets, we are encouraging exporters to use the Silk Mark hologram on their products.

What are the membership categories? And how many members have been registered so far?

There are two membership categories - Ordinary members and Associate members. Ordinary members are the ‘real’ members - the trade, manufacturers, exporters, retailers, corporate houses, etc who register in the scheme to use the Silk Mark logo and labels in their products.

Associate members are consumer organisations and NGOs who do not have any commercial interest but are only interested in promoting silk.

So far 70 members have registered for the scheme (30 from Mumbai alone), all of them in the Ordinary/real category. This includes all the leading silk exporters of India, retailers like Kala Niketan, Nalli’s etc, and domestic dealers.

What will SMOI charge for the Silk Mark labels?

The labels will cost Re 1 per piece.

As testing will play an important role in the success of the scheme, how many Silk Mark testing labs have been set up so far?

There are 8 centres presently apart from Bangalore and Bhagalpur. We intend to include and train NGOs and consumer organisations in the Silk Mark testing so that testing can be done locally so that the scheme is more accessible. We have to train members to look at the supply stage of yarn. It is important to find out from where the exporter/manufacturer is sourcing his yarn.