Stamp of support: Postal cover on Kashmir’s famed hand-knotted carpet

Plans underway to lift up dwindling trade with GI tag and QR code, restore customer confidence in authentic handicraft

Kashmir’s famed hand-knotted carpet, with its intricate and colourful floral patterns, adorned a special cover of the Indian Postal Service this week. This comes as a shot in the arm of the J&K Handicrafts and Handloom Department’s efforts to push for the Geographical Indication (GI) certification, upscale the dwindling trade, and restore its lost glory. “The inclusion of Kashmir’s hand-knotted carpet as a postal cover will help educate people about GI tagging and reach a wide audience. The situation demands the building of trust and restoring consumer confidence to buy our authentic carpets,” Mahmood Ahmad Shah, Director, Handloom and Handicrafts Kashmir, told The Hindu. To win over buyers, Mr. Shah said his department was planning to shift from the traditional label system to the Quick Response (QR) code for carpets.