EPCH hosts Seminar on Safeguarding Business from Cyber Crime and Design, Trends & Forecast for Handicraft Exporters

New Delhi – 14th January, 2023 – The Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts organised an awareness seminar on “How to Safeguard Your Business from Cyber Crime” and “Design, Trends & Forecast for Handicraft Exporters” at Agra, Uttar Pradesh on 14th January, 2023.

Avdesh Agrawal, Co-opted Member – COA, EPCH & President – IHGF Delhi Fair Spring 2023 Reception Committee; Anuj Kumar, Joint Commissioner Industries & GM DIC, Agra; Rakshit Tandon, Cyber Security expert; Sultan Singh, Inspector (In-charge), Crime Cell Uttar Pradesh Police; Rakesh Kumar, Asst. DGFT, Zonal DGFT CLA Kanpur; Dr. Mukesh Sharma (IES), Asstt. Director, MSME Development & Facilitation Office, Agra; Rajat Asthana, Joint Convenor – Regional Committee Central Region, EPCH; Rajesh Rawat, Addl. Executive Director – EPCH; Amla Srivastava, Head Designer – EPCH & leading exporters from Agra were present – informed Rakesh Kumar, Director General EPCH.

Rajesh Rawat, Addl. Executive Director – EPCH welcomed all the officials from DGFT, UP Police – Cyber Crime, CoA members EPCH and the leading exporters from Agra. He informed that today’s seminar is organized to facilitate the exporters to understand measures to safeguard business from Cyber Crime and get indepth knowledge of latest Design, Trends & Forecast in Handicrafts. He further said that EPCH has always been at the forefront of organizing series of awareness seminars through expert faculties on a pan-India basis for member exporters.

Avdesh Agrawal, Co-opted Member – CoA, EPCH & President – IHGF Delhi Fair Spring 2023 Reception Committee said business information is a priceless asset that needs to be protected from unauthorised access, modification, and disclosure. Preventive measures are always the best line of defence against cybercriminals. In the current business environment, cybersecurity has become more crucial, so member exporters need to be made aware of the safety precautions.

Rajat Asthana, Joint Convenor – Regional Committee Central Region, EPCH said that post-pandemic reflection fosters a sense of perspective. Customers are enthused about discovering and savouring new facets of their own personalities. Exporters must comprehend the consumer’s mindset before designing and developing their products.

Anuj Kumar, Joint Commissioner Industries & GM DIC, Agra informed that District Industries Centers are run and managed at the district level to give entrepreneurs or first-time business owners all the support services they need to launch their own MSMEs. Additionally, DICs support the creation and growth of industrial cooperatives. He also urged exporters to forward their intent on ‘Nivesh Sarthi’ portal so that Uttar Pradesh government and DIC will be able to understand the sector requirement and will enable them to formulate polices accordingly.

Dr. Mukesh Sharma (IES), Asstt.Director MSME Development & Facilitation Office, Agra informed that The Ministry of MSME, Government of India, plays a crucial role in shaping and promoting MSMEs from the country as handicrafts are a cottage industry dominated by MSME exporters, and various incentives and initiatives are being under taken by MSME to promote schemes. He further said that MSME department has launched ‘Champions portal’ & ‘Samadhan portal’ to help MSMEs in difficult situations like finance, raw material, labour, permissions etc.

Sultan Singh, Inspector (In-charge), Cyber Cell U.P. Police alongwith Vijay Tomar, CCO Cyber Cell U.P Police informed participants that offenses related to cybercrime are on the rise, as cybercriminals exploit people’s vulnerabilities. The most common type of online fraud is related to banks, in which fraudsters pose as bank officials and persuade victims to share OTP, KYC updates, and sometimes send links to be clicked in order to access bank accounts. Officials reassured that the police are always ready to assist victims of cybercrime and urged them to remain vigilant, aware, and not hesitate to report any such cases. They also discussed various types of cybercrime and provided the SMART Model for avoiding them.

Rakshit Tandon, Cyber Security expert made an informative presentation on how cybercrime occurs and the recent increase in cases. He gave examples of personal information hacking, major business threats such as ransomware, data breaches, impersonations, sim-swapping, financial frauds, and so on. He also provided tips on how to prevent cybercrime, such as Protection from viruses and malware by using effective anti-virus software, for the operating system and internet security software updated software is crucial, on social media platforms all private information should be kept locked, etc.

Rakesh Kumar, Asst. DGFT, Zonal DGFT CLA Kanpur said that DGFT schemes & incentives have played a pivotal role in promotion of India’s exports. Schemes like Interest Equalisation Scheme, EPCG scheme, MAI scheme, DFIA & other schemes are available for exporters to help them increase their exports.

Amla Srivastava, Head Designer – EPCH virtually informed the participants about the emerging trend and designs for 2024 that the global market is looking and manufacturers should prioritise taking into account the most recent trends through which customers are attracted.

Various questions pertaining to Design, Trend & Forecast, Cyber Security Ways, Marketing and Compliances etc. were asked by the participants. The officials addressed all the questions and provided solutions to the exporters.

EPCH is a nodal agency for promoting exports of handicrafts from the Country to various destinations of the world and projecting India’s image abroad as reliable supplier of high quality of handicrafts goods & services. The Handicrafts exports during the year 2021-22 was Rs. 33253.00 Crores (US $ 4459.76 Million) registering a growth of 29.49% in rupee term & 28.90% in dollar terms over the previous year, informed by Rakesh Kumar, Director General, EPCH.