Central Cottage Industries Emporium

The Central Cottage Industries Emporium was established in Delhi in 1948 by the Indian government's Ministry of Industry and Commerce, in the years immediately following independence, as a state initiative to give India's handicraft traditions a formal outlet and a livelihood for artisans displaced by industrialization. The venture initially operated at a loss. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru then asked Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, a leading figure of the Indian Cooperative Union and a champion of craft revival, to take over its management, a turning point that shaped its identity as a craft-preservation institution rather than a conventional retailer. Administration later passed to the Central Cottage Industries Corporation of India Ltd, which today runs the emporium under the Ministry of Textiles. The flagship store sits at a corner of Janpath — a road that was called Queensway under British rule and was renamed after independence, its new name translating to 'way of the people.' Inside, the multi-floor store organizes handicrafts by region and craft form: hand-woven and hand-block-printed textiles, carpets and rugs, wood and metal handicrafts, and jewellery, most of it sourced directly from cooperative societies and individual artisans across India rather than through commercial wholesalers.