Gramshree mela records new high in sale of rural handicrafts If the Gram Shree Mela was designed to enable rural craftspersons understand the demands of their urban customers, then sales at the 13th Gram Shree Mela held at Jamshedpur from clearly proved that the Tata Steel Rural Development Society and its associate the New Delhi based CAPART, have been extremely successful in their efforts. From delicate earrings in beads from Himachal, exquisite embroidery from the south, carpets from Bhadoi, Kantha from Bengal, pickles and food products from Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa, Chikan from Lucknow, cane from the northeast, pottery from Khurjah - there was something for everyone to stop and want to buy. Over 120 artisans from 16 states of the country spent from February 3 to 12 at Jamshedpur to participate in one of the most popular handicraft fairs in the eastern region of India. The Mela was inaugurated by the Consul General of United States in India Mr George N Sibley. Overwhelmed at the display of village and rural crafts, Mr Sibley, “for a country like India, which is known for its unity in diversity melas which bring its grassroot artisans to the forefront is very essential.” Also present at the inauguration were Mr A N Singh, Deputy Managing Director, Corporate Services of the Company and Mrs Shakti Sharma, Head, Social Services and Family Initiatives.

“A human mind has the ability to work faster than a computer, if only it motivated in an interesting and exciting way our country would soon be on the path towards rapid progress,” Dr Jamshed J Irani, former Managing Director, Tata Steel and Director, Tata Sons emphasised at the special awards function organised to honour the schools of Jamshedpur through the Dr J J Irani Education Excellence Award. “Children must be educated on how to make more and more use of the power of their brains. The changes that will achieve this objective must be brought about,” he added.

Dr Irani congratulates Sister Flavian on the progress in her school

Instituted to motivate the schools of the steel city to pursue excellence, the Award is based on the lines of the Tata Business Excellence Model. During the current year, while a number of schools make appreciable progress none of them qualified for the Award. Therefore, the Company decided to confer the prize money on all 19 schools who have participated in the Awards process. Each of the schools was given a cash award of Rs 20,000/ during the awards function held on January 28, at the J R D Tata Sports Complex.

Exhorting the educationists present at the ceremony to equip students with the ability to excel, the Managing Director, Mr B Muthuraman explained, “only education can give a person the ability to achieve success and to have the strength to face the challenges that are certain to confront them in this journey.” He expressed satisfaction at the progress made by the schools after the introduction of the excellence programme.

The function was attended by a large number of educationists from across the steel city, principals of schools, Dr J Singh, Mr Gautam Patnaik who has been especially come in from Bangalore and Dr Madhu Singh of DBMS.