CUTTACK: After a long wait, Cuttack city will finally get a centre of excellence for its own homegrown craft filigree. The district administration on Saturday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with IIT-Bhubaneswar Research And Entrepreneurship Park (IIT-BBS REP) for setting up a common facility centre (CFC) of excellence for filigree in Cuttack.
The MoU was signed by CEO and independent director, IIT-BBS REP, Soobhankar Pati with assistant director, district industries centre(DIC), Namita Mishra in the presence of director IIT-Bhubaneswar Shreepad Karmalkar.
The CFC will provide advanced training to filigree artisans for contemporising their craft and designs along with facilitating new technology tools and equipment for them. The CFC will also help in exhibiting the filigree works, sales and exports beside emphasising on purchase of silver without tax and minimising making charges. Besides, customers will have an opportunity to interact directly with filigree artisans at the CFC.
The district administration has identified land measuring 7,000 sq ft on the side of Petanala in CDA for setting up the CFC of Excellence. The IIT-BBS REP will prepare the DPR which will be submitted to the state government for necessary approvals. It will provide design, technical support, marketing plan and brand building strategies for the CFC, officials said.
Apart from providing organisational structure for creating a successful venture, the IIT-BBS REP will conduct training module, outreach programmes beside creating startups in silver filigree. It will manage the CFC of Excellence for three years from the date of commencement for operational, research and technical support, they added.