E-commerce portal Snapdeal.com has tied up with the India Post to launch a pilot project to set up facilitation desks at Varanasi post offices to enable weavers to sell on its platform, a company statement said here Thursday.

This is an endeavour by Snapdeal and India Post to empower local artisans, small and medium entrepreneurs to sustain their livelihood by providing a platform to popularise their indigenous products, the statement said.

“India has a number of unique and highly specialised art forms and weaves; however, with the fast changing fashion trends and readily available products we are losing out on this rich heritage…We believe it is our responsibility to save these dying art forms by providing a platform to artisans and traditional weavers,” Kunal Bahl, chief executive officer and co-founder, Snapdeal.com, said.

“Through this partnership we will take the Banarasi weaves to customers in all corners of the country and extend this platform to include more weavers and artisans of our country,” he added.

India Post has 154,866 post offices across the country with 466,903 employees. The department with its huge network has taken up the role to serve as an agency for delivering products and also playing a vital role in the cash on delivery segment, the company stated.

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> News-IANS> Business-Economy / IANS / New Delhi – December 25th, 2014