IIMB hosts ‘Kaleen aur Awadh-nama’: A Music Narrative

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) hosted an evening of discussion and art on carpet weaving in Uttar Pradesh that interlinked academic debates and Dastangoi, a traditional form of story-telling, at the IIMB Auditorium, this evening.

The Dastangoi artiste, Askari Naqvi, with his music and the founder of Deep Dive India, Samir Madhusudhan Kher, contemporized the traditional art form by combining history with poetry, photographs and music. The result was a feast for both the mind and the soul. 

The musical narrative looked at Avadh as a melting pot of cultures, especially during this period of medieval and early modern history. 

The cultural event was preceded by a panel discussion between the Principal Investigators of the UKRI-ICSSR project on “Enablers and Obstacles for UK-India Trade: Banks and Diasporas”. The panel discussed their learnings from their immersion in different parts of India understanding the functioning of handcrafted carpet, saree, and shawl industry. The panel comprised Dr. Sunil Kumar and Dr. Kamini Gupta from King’s College London, and Dr. Prateek Raj from IIM Bangalore. 

Organized as part of a research project by King's College, London and IIM Bangalore on the hand-made carpet industry, the panel and the performance provided a unique insight on project themes such as social networks, import of ideas from Persia, the lives and work of chikankari karigars, the carpet cluster in Khairabad, the “accidental” occupation of the women of Kashmir, the origins and globalization of the Benares silk and more.

MSMEs are the backbone of the Indian economy. However, Indian MSMEs face daunting challenges which inhibit their ability to transition to larger companies. One of the problems in India, which also affects its ability to generate jobs, has been the relative inability of small firms to transition to medium sized firms and for medium sized firms to transition to large firms. Given the importance of handicrafts industry in sustaining jobs, the study will have important implications for policy and practice. These companies face a number of challenges such as in access to credit, understanding and implementing GST rules, and fighting inflationary pressures. For example, in the hand-knotted carpet industry in Kashmir, small manufacturers complained of rising input prices (such as wool and silk) that has increased their cost; but the prices that they receive from buyers remain unchanged. This has put a pressure on their margin and their ability to manufacture profitably. Related to this is the challenge of finding artisans to work for them. 

 “Artisans in Kashmir get paid approximately Rs 250 a day while the rate for daily wage work is Rs 500-700n a day. This has made a number of artisans leave their traditional occupations to take up daily wage work and has made it difficult to find dependable skilled labour to do the complex jobs of weaving carpets. Finally, for small manufacturers trying to directly export, there are challenges related to accessing buyers- small manufacturers do not know how they can find export buyers and therefore, often have to go through an intermediary putting further pressure on their margins,” explained Dr Kamini Gupta.

The project aims to understand how MSMEs can overcome these challenges and access export markets. 

What the Grant is for

‘Enablers and Obstacles to UK-India Trade’ is an ESRC-ICSSR funded project in collaboration between King's College London, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI, UK).

 It aims to understand key enablers and obstacles to UK-India bilateral trade by gathering primary data on supply chains and bank credit for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in India.

The project will address two primary research questions: How do export-oriented MSMEs access credit, and how is their propensity to export shaped by this? and What is the role of social networks, including those between the Indian diaspora and exporters in India, in shaping MSME inclusion within export supply chains?

The research team consists of Dr. Prateek Raj, faculty from the Strategy area at IIMB, and Dr. Sunil Kumar and Dr. Kamini Gupta from King’s College London. They will execute the research collaboratively and will host a number of events in London and Bangalore to bring together external experts as well as the public for dissemination. 

By addressing these questions, the project intends to provide evidence for policy-makers and businesses in both India and the UK on how to manage the changing business environment against an ongoing Brexit and rising global protectionism that has implications for both the UK-India and UK-EU relations.

The grant came about when the researcchers came together to apply for a funding call put out by ESRC-UKRI-ICSSR to study UK-India trade. The grant was awarded after a competitive selection process where a team of independent experts evaluated the various grant applications and selected four projects on the basis of research rigour and implications for policy and business.

Dr Kamini Rao and Dr Prateek Raj had met as PhD students in London and realized that they have similar research interests. Therefore, when the call for this grant came by, they decided to finally come together to embark upon a research project that explored their common areas of interest. The fact that the grant explicitly called for collaboration between a UK and Indian university helped make it a great fit.

The research team wanted to pick a context that was labour-intensive and fragmented (i.e. had a number of small firms engaged in production as opposed to a few large firms only). This is because of a few reasons: their core areas of interest include access to credit and the role of social networks. These factors are particularly important for smaller firms; some sectors like fin-tech typically receive a lot more attention when thinking about UK-India trade and they wanted to pick an overlooked but important sector in terms of its potential to contribute to trade; and because it is labour intensive, the carpet industry supports a number of jobs among rural and urban populations; and this is of particular importance given the unemployment challenges. 

Following a period of desk and field research and scoping conversations with various stakeholders over the past year, they decided to focus on India’s handwoven carpet export industry. All members of the project team undertook fieldwork in these locations in April 2022 to understand the nature of the industry, and gain contextual knowledge to support next steps.

According to the Carpet Export Promotion Council of India (CEPC), India is the world leader in handmade carpet manufacturing and exporting, with India exporting around 90 percent of its total production.

Collaborating with the Kissa-goi artistes 

Earlier this year, members of the project team undertook fieldwork in Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh (Bhadohi), Jaipur and Panipat to understand the nature of the industry, and gain contextual knowledge to support next steps. This process has culminated in the workshop at IIMB to take stock of their findings and decide next steps, specifically to finalize a survey that will help them collect large sample of quantitative data. 

The research team believes that it is important that the findings of the study go beyond the academic conversation and reach the wider public. Therefore, they organized an event that combined a short panel discussion on the carpet industry with a cultural performance that dwells on the political and cultural history of Awadh, one key part of which is carpets. The format was intended to make the work more accessible and enjoyable for the audience and combines an intellectual discussion with a story-telling and musical narrative.