In a bid to boost tribal artisans, Centre providing PoS-enabled devices at festival

NEW DELHI: When tribal artisans will come down to the national Capital from villages in the deep interiors to showcase and sell their handcrafted products for a fortnight starting November 16, the government plans to enable all stalls with Point of Sale (PoS) devices to introduce them to cashless transactions through technology on a day to day.

Tested at some places last year, when the first "Aadi Mahotsav" happened, this year will be the first time when artisans will accept payment through major debit/credit cards for which Point of Sale devices will be provided at all the stalls at Dilli Haat, Nehru Park, and Connaught Place.

“A special training has been conducted by the State Bank of India to ensure smooth operations. We had planned to have PoS at all stalls last year but it could not happen. This year we will have PoS devices at all stalls,” Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED), Managing Director, Pravir Krishna told TOI.

He said that the Mahotsav will display both digital commerce and e-commerce. The tribal artisans will exhibit and sell their products for 15 days at Dilli Haat, 10 days at Nehru Park and four days at Central Park. Last year the Mahotsav happened in seven states and this year it will be held in 19 states starting with Delhi in November. All 19 states will be covered by April, before the parliamentary elections.

TRIFED had signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with Amazon, Snapdeal, Flipkart, PayTM and GEM- a government portal for e-commerce last year and the impact of these linkages in promoting tribal products will be highlighted during the Mahotsav. The theme of the festival is hinged to the celebration of not just tribal culture, craft, and cuisine but also “commerce”.

The tribes constitute over 8 percent of the Country’s population. In real terms, it adds up to over 10 crore people. “The idea is to expand the product range and designs. The synergy between these two can generate marketable products of art and handicraft for the top-end global market,” Krishna added.