BunkarMitra Help Line: To provide a single point of contact to handloom weavers for their
professional queries “BunkarMitra” -Helpline 18002089988 for handloom weavers was launched
in 2017. This service is available from 10:00 AM to 06:00 P.M on all 7 days in a week in seven
languages: Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Kannada and Assamese.
MoU with Financial Corporations: MoU was signed with National Backward Classes
Finance Development Corporation (NBCFDC) and National Schedule Castes Finance
Development Corporation (NSFDC) to implement schemes of Government of India for OBC and
SC artisans and weavers in 14 identified clusters with necessary forward linkages for income
sustainability and enhancement.
Educational facilities to the children of handloom weavers: Memorandums of
Understanding was signed with Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and National
Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) to provide customized educational service to the weavers for
which Ministry provides 75% of the fee in case of SC, ST, BPL and Women weaver families.
Artisan Helpline No 1800 208 4800 was launched in 2017 in seven languages -Hindi,
English, Kannada, Assamese, Bengali, Tamil and Telugu.
Hastkala Sahyog Shivirs: Hastkala Sahyog Shivirs for handloom weavers and handicraft
artisans are organized across the country. Various activities such as disbursal of MUDRA loan,
supply of looms ,accessories and tool kits to weavers and artisans, issue of Pehchan ID Cards,
yarn passbooks, enrolment of family member of weavers under IGNOU and NIOS , awareness
programmes on GST, GI, Bunkar Mitra helpline and about the schemes of Handlooms and
Handicrafts Departments of the Government were organized in the shivirs.
Steel
The Ministry of Steel, is responsible for planning and development of iron and steel
industry, development of essential inputs such as iron ore, limestone, dolomite manganese ore,
chromites, ferro-alloys, sponge iron etc, and other related functions. Crude steel production has
shown a sustained rise since 2013-14 along with capacity.
India is also an important producer of pig iron. Post liberalization, with setting up several
units in the private sector, not only imports have drastically reduced but also India has turned out
to be a net exporter of pig iron.
Relevant Website: www.steel.gov.in
Global Ranking of Indian Steel
Provisional World Association (world steel) data (Source: World Steel in Figures, 2018)
shows that world crude steel production was 1689 mt during 2017, up by 3.8 per cent year over
year. China remained the largest crude steel producer in the world and accounted for 72 per cent
of Asian and 49 per cent of world crude steel production during 2017 compared to 74 per cent
and 50 per cent respectively of 2016. India remained the third largest crude steel producer in the
world in 2017. But more significantly, at 101.4 mt, India’s crude steel production crossed the
100 million tonne mark for the first time, thereby making 2017 a milestone year for the domestic
steel industry.
Fertilizers