Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (Trifed) is opening two more showrooms in southern Tamil Nadu and Kerala this week as part of its expansion programme.

This will take the total number of showrooms to 29, said Jiji Thomson, managing director, Trifed.

TWO SHOWROOMS

Customarily called ‘Tribes India’, the showrooms will be inaugurated at Kanyakumari and Kovalam on Wednesday.

Trifed is headquartered in New Delhi, and functions under the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

Swami Gururatna Jnana Tapaswi, organising secretary of Santhigiri Ashram, will inaugurate the Kanyakumari showroom. S. Nagarajan, district collector, will perform the first sales.

M. Ayyappan, chairman and managing director, HLL Life Care, will open the Kovalam showroom.

SILVER JUBILEE

Septuagenarian Edith Braun, the German lady who spent 26 days in a rowing boat on the Atlantic Ocean in 1968 as a 29-year-old sailor, will do the honour of first sales.

Braun, now 73, has for long been an ardent fan of Indian handicrafts. Her attending the function is a great privilege, said Jiji Thomson.

Founded in 1987, Trifed is currently celebrating its silver jubilee year.

It is primarily engaged in the development and marketing of tribal traditional products including handicrafts and natural products in order to improve livelihoods of tribal communities.

AADI CHITRA

This is sought to be done by creating a market and business opportunities for them based on their culture and traditional skills even while ensuring fair and equitable remuneration.

The Trifed annual art exhibition, ‘Aadi Chitra’ is currently on, with its Bangalore leg having started on Friday. Slated to travel to nine cities across the country in the next five months, the event aims to gross sales of Rs 1 crore.

>vinson.kurian@thehindu.co.in

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