Financial Assistance for using Global Standards in ... - GS1 India

Financial Assistance
for using
Global Standards
in BARCODING to
GS1 - The Global language of business

Introduction
The Indian Handicrafts sector plays a significant and important role in the country’s economy. It provides employment
to a vast segment of craft persons in rural and semi urban areas and generates substantial foreign exchange for
the country, while preserving its cultural heritage. Handicrafts have great potential, as they hold the key for sustaining
not only the existing set of millions of artisans spread over length and breadth of the country, but also for the
increasingly large number of new entrants in the crafts activity. Presently, handicrafts contribute substantially to
employment generation and exports. The Handicraft sector has, however, suffered due to its being unorganized,
with the additional constraints of lack of education, low capital, absence of market intelligence and poor exposure
to new technologies like barcoding etc.
Handicrafts activity being a State subject, its development and promotion are the primary responsibility of every
State Government. However, the Central Government is supplementing their efforts by implementing various
development schemes.
The Department of Handicrafts, Minisitry of Textile, Government of India
recognizes the contribution of the Handicrafts Exporters in the growth of
Indian economy, export promotion and employment generation. To make
them compliant with International best practices which use GS1 standards
in barcoding. The Ministry is offering 100% subsidy for the one time
registration fee for using GS1 standards in barcoding.
Barcoding
Barcoding is one of the IT tools used for automatic data
capture. Barcodes are represented through a series of
black bars & white spaces and printed as part of product
packaging or as labels (sticker) or as tags attached to
the product. Barcodes can be used to represent
information related to product identification and other
supplementary information such as batch number,
manufacturing/expiry dates, consigner/consignee etc.
When these barcodes are scanned using a scanner, it
enables instantaneous data capture with 100% accuracy
and at great speeds.
Barcoding using GS1 standards and numbering system
enables universal & unique identification of products/
consignments, across the globe.
GS1 barcodes are accepted as de-facto standards in
Retail worldwide with over 5 billion GS1 barcodes being
scanned each day.

Benefits of Barcoding
Today Indian Handicrafts Industry faces a huge challenge
to get access to global markets which can be addressed
using simple technologies like barcoding and adopting
international best practices. This will not only provide
international look and feel to handicraft products but will
also allow Indian Handicrafts exporters to register their
product on global website which is widely being accessed
by international retailers and buyers across the globe.
With the adoption of barcoding as simple technology
and following international standards and best practices,
Indian Handicrafts sector cam emerge as the prime
exporter and foreign exchange earner.
Other benefits of adopting barcoding
g Automated data capture with 100% accuracy
g Real time stock management of raw materials and
finished goods
g Fast and error free data recording on product/
consignment movement
g Easy integration with existing software, if any
g In compliance with growing requirements of
international markets
g Also gives international look and feel
g Provides exposure to global market by uploading
product details to GS1 India’s GEPIR website
GS1 Standards in barcoding
GS1 Standards provide the means by which a common
language is used to accurately and speedily
communicate trading information across the supply
chain to any industry in any part of the world.
The numbers issued by GS1 for using Global Standards
in barcoding are completely unique providing
unambiguous physical identification of products,
consignments, locations etc.
GS1 Standards can be used by all industries and in all
parts of the supply chain, from supply of raw materials
through manufacturing, warehousing and distribution
to an end point.
GS1 Standards offer benefit to all organizations by
reducing costs, saving time and increasing accuracy and
efficiency. It promotes automation, increases control and
enables goods to be tracked and traced.
Over one million companies
across the world use GS1
standards which were
developed by GS1
collaboratively with the
Industry 30 years ago.
Worldwide over 5 billion GS1
barcodes get scanned at Pointof-Sale
counters each day.

Procedure for availing the subsidy
This scheme makes it highly affordable for the Handicraft Export Units to adopt GS1 Global Standards in barcoding.
Units adopting GS1 standards are eligible for a subsidy of 100% on the one time Registration Fee paid towards the
allocation of GS1 company prefix (that will be used for generation of product codes for your different product
variants/types). Also the first year Annual Fee is included in the subsidy provided by the Department of Handicrafts,
Ministry of Textiles, Government of India. Units only have to pay the security deposit which is refundable.
How to implement GS1 barcodes on you products
After obtaining the GS1 company prefix provided by GS1 India on registration, just approach your printer to incorporate
the generated GS1 barcode numbers on your product packaging through one time artwork change or generation of
a barcoded sticker/label for each product. GS1 India will provide the technical specifications for generation of GS1
barcodes.
With your registration, you join a global community of over 1 million
companies across 140 countries and get yourself global exposure the GS1’s
GEPIR service.
RUSH! Subsidy is available for a limited period only on
first come first serve basis.
Conatct Details
Office of the Development Commissioner (Handicrafts)
West Block No. 7, R. K. Puram, Sector - 1, New Delhi - 110 066
Phone: 011 26177790, Fax: 011 26163085