Air hostesses on board Air India flights will be draped in Mysore Silk sarees as the Karnataka Silk Industries Corporation (KSIC) Limited, Mysuru, is all set to supply 10,000 of them from January end.
Speaking to mediapersons here on Wednesday, KSIC chairman D Basavaraj said that the sarees would be supplied in phases from January to June. The deal will bring KSIC a revenue of Rs 6.5 crore.
The silk maker is also supplying silk shawls to the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The shawls are given as gifts to foreign dignitaries who call on the President. “About 50 shawls priced Rs 10,000 each have already been supplied and an order for an additional 50 has come in from the Rashtrapati Bhavan,” said Basavaraj.
Also, Salma Ansari, wife of Vice President Hamid Ansari, is scheduled to shop at the KSIC showroom in Bengaluru on January 5. Basavaraj said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit the KSIC stall at the industrial exhibition ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ on January 8.
The century-old KSIC has clocked a turnover of Rs 98 crore in the last nine months of the present financial year, which is Rs eight crore more than the previous year.
Another plan brewing in KSIC is making Mysore Silk available at an affordable price for the middle class and the poor, albeit as a material called soft silk. A soft silk manufacturing unit will be set up in the now defunct factory at Channapatna in Ramanagar district.
Elaborating, he said at least 50 gram to 60 gram of silk will be used for every metre of the soft silk saree. An amount of Rs 65 lakh has been released to the Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Limited for the restoration of the factory. It may take about eight to nine months for the production to start.
The State government has already sanctioned Rs six crore to revive the Channapatna facility. An additional Rs 3.24 crore has been collected through the disposal of old machines at the factory, said Basavaraj.