Bhubaneswar: The ongoing annual fair of Sisir Saras is not only drawing huge crowds but has also been doing brisk business in the last one week. It has crossed a turnover of Rs 10 crore in just seven days. With 306 stalls of rural artisans and SHGs (comprising mostly rural women) and three demo stalls on sabai grass, terracotta and incense sticks, visitors can get a first-hand experience of the manufacturing process of the products and also buy the artefacts. There is a theme stall in the fair where all the products available are displayed.
“The response of customers has been very encouraging so far. We have already crossed the sales figure of last year in the first 7 days. There are four more days to go for the fair and the turnover will soar further on the weekend,” said Sujay Kar, Joint CEO (Marketing), ORMAS.
Grabbing the eyeballs of visitors are paper lampshades from Puduchery. Priced nominally, these lampshades are made of paper, cotton paler, thread and glue. “We are witnessing very good demand of our product. On an average, we are selling 50-75 paper lampshades every day. We didn’t expect such a huge response from customers,” said B. Raghavan the stall owner.
Workshop on GeM Registration
A one-day workshop on GeM (Governmen tElectronic Marketplace) was organised by ORMAS at the Sisir Saras Mela conference hall in the IDCO Exhibition Ground. Shantisudha Kanungo, Joint Director, Saroj Satpathy, Asst.Director, Manas Ranjan Das, Asst. Director, GeM Procurement Unit and Sudhanshu Pardhan, Business Facilitator from Directorate of Treasuries and Inspection, Bhubaneswar addressed the producers’ group (PG) and SHG members to explain details of GeM and procedures of registration.
The main objective of the workshop was to provide a platform for the PGs and SHGs members to register themselves as sellers on the GeM portal.
This will encourage the small business unit/PGs/PCs to do business with the government. It will help the seller to sell rural products through GeM portal.
Among ORMAS officials Banita Sethi , Joint CEO, (Finance &Accounts), Sujay Kar, Joint CEO (Marketing), Keshaw Chandra Jha, Dy. CEO (Livelihoods) & Mahendra Ranjan Sahoo,
The participants include the PG and SHG members from Angul, Balasore, Ganjam, Khurdha, Puri, Raygada, Sambalpur and Sudargarh.