Fifth AGM successfully completed

Fifth AGM successfully completed
The fifth AGM of the Silk Mark Organisation of India was held on 18th Dec 2008 at the Hotel Atria, No. 1, Palace Road, Bangalore. The event was unique in few respects. This is the first AGM for the Chairperson after she took over the post in January 2008. The event was attended by Smt. R. Jaya, Director of Handlooms and Textiles, Tamil Nadu.

The AGM was so timed to coincide with the Silk Mark Expo, Bangalore, that the exhibitors from across the country could participate in AGM. These participants would otherwise not get an opportunity to participate in AGM, which has been always held in Bangalore.

The meet was attended by seventy five members, who have come from different parts of the country. The majority of them have from Bangalore itself and few members had traveled from distance parts of Tamil Nadu to attend the meet. The rest of the participants had come from the Silk Mark Expo, which was underway on that day.

The programme started with the traditional invocation song and was followed with the welcome address by Shri. K.S. Gopal, Scientist 'C'. Shri K.S.Menon, Chief Executive, SMOI made a detailed presentation about various activities of Silk Mark. He shared the experiences of conducting the Silk Mark Expo during 2008-09 at Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Guwahati and the conduct of the ongoing eleven Expos at different places during 2008-09. The events are being organized on a self sustaining basis.

Smt. R.Jaya, Director of Handlooms and Textiles, Tamil Nadu, spoke about the need for broad basing the quality mark and extend the quality marking to Zari also. She mentioned that the issue of the purity of Zari is major point of contention between various manufacturers, traders and retailers and the public is often the victim of the lack of standards. Smt. M.Sathiyavathy, Chairperson, mentioned that Silk Mark would intensify the media campaign with some more funds allocated from Central Silk Board.

The Audited accounts of SMOI was adopted by the members present in the AGM by clapping of hands. M/s. Sridhar and Brito was appointed to continue as auditor for 2008-09 by the AGM.

Shri. V.Ramesh, Executive, Chennai chapter conducted the proceedings of the election of members for the Committee of Administration (COA). He announced the elected members for the two categories ie Special and Ordinary. Interestingly all the sitting members were reelected on an unanimous basis without any competition. The Directorate of Handlooms and Textiles, Tamil Nadu was co-opted as permanent member of the society after the approval by the AGM in place of KSIC. The complete list of permanent, special and ordinary members of the COA is presented in the list.
The Authorised Users were invited to share their experience with Silk Mark. One of the participant requested that the Silk Mark Expos be extended to seven days. Another Authorised User expressed that for the Silk industry to flourish the standards for colour fastness should improve.
Shri. Subramanya , COA elected member complemented the efforts of Silk Mark and suggested that the awareness about Silk Mark should be increased through massive publicity.
Shri. Pranay Kumar, APO, made the vote of thanks and the meeting ended with a sumptuous lunch.