Kharagpur, 24 March 2026: The Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, through its recently established Center of Excellence for the Unified AI-Enabled Craft Ecosystem Platform, in collaboration with the Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), Ministry of Textiles, and Government of India, is set to organise its first Craft Toolkit Workshop titled “Srishti O Anusandhan” from 25 March to 2 April 2026 at IIT Kharagpur. The Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship will host the inaugural programme on 25 March 2026 at 10:30 AM. The workshop will bring together 15 distinguished artisans representing seven diverse craft traditions and clusters from across India, including Kallakurichi Wood Carving (GI) from Tamil Nadu, Khatamband from Jammu & Kashmir, Udayagiri Wooden Cutlery from Andhra Pradesh, cane & bamboo craft from the North Eastern Region, Saharanpur wood craft from Uttar Pradesh, Delhi-based wood craft practices, and wood carving traditions from Odisha. The group includes award-winning master artisans and skilled workers, featuring both men and women, who represent a variety of traditional crafts from different regions.
This pioneering initiative aims to document craft processes systematically, tools, materials, and production methodologies while fostering meaningful engagement between artisans, faculty members, researchers, and domain experts. The workshop is part of a larger plan from the Centre of Excellence, which is backed by the Development Commissioner (Handicrafts) and focuses on three main areas: small project integration and creating a portal; organising workshops, improving toolkits, and building a design database; and developing a craft repository and learning systems using AI and LLM technology. During the workshop, artisans will demonstrate their techniques, share insights into tools and materials, and engage in collaborative discussions with the IIT Kharagpur team for documentation, analysis, and potential enhancement of toolkits. We expect the outcomes of this exercise to contribute to future documentation frameworks, toolkit development, design databases, learning resources, and potential market and design linkages. Select samples and prototypes may also be retained at the Centre of Excellence for research, testing, and display.
A significant component of the programme will include expert interaction sessions scheduled on 28 and 29 March 2026, focusing on craft processes, tools, materials, challenges, and community-acceptable innovations. These deliberations aim to develop a grounded and context-sensitive approach to toolkit augmentation and innovation in traditional craft ecosystems. The workshop will also feature continuous video and photographic documentation, artisan interviews, collaborative brainstorming sessions, and opportunities for artisans to showcase and sell their creations within the IIT Kharagpur campus during the later phase of the programme. Speaking ahead of the workshop, Prof. Priyadarshi Patnaik, Principal Investigator of the project and Coordinator of the workshop, remarked, “This initiative marks an important early step towards building a long-term, research-driven and technology-enabled ecosystem for Indian handicrafts through close collaboration between artisans, academic institutions, experts, and government agencies.” We are grateful to the Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), Smt Amrit Raj, and her office for their support. This is a first-of-its-kind large-scale collaboration for both IIT Kharagpur and DC Handicrafts.”
