Organizing/Participation in Exhibitions, Trade Fairs, Expo, Seminars and Investors Meets under Marketing and Publicity

What is this Marketing and Publicity scheme?

Organizing/Participation in Exhibitions, Trade Fairs, Expo, Seminars and Investors Meets is a scheme under Marketing and Publicity, run by the Department of Industries and Commerce, Union Territory of Puducherry, through the District Industries Centre.

Under the scheme the department arranges promotion campaigns, exhibitions, trade fairs, investors meets and seminars in important towns and cities of India and abroad. The purpose is twofold: to give Puducherry's small producers a display-cum-sale platform for their products, and to attract industries to invest in the Union Territory.

The products the scheme is built around are the ones Puducherry's small producers actually make, MSME industrial products, handicraft products and cottage industry products. For an artisan working out of a household workshop in Puducherry or Karaikal, the constraint on selling outside the territory is not demand but the cost and logistics of getting to a market. This scheme removes both: the department books and organises the event, and it meets the participant's travel and daily living costs.

What does a participant actually get?

According to the District Industries Centre, the assistance to participants is:

• Travelling expenses restricted to second-class railway fare for the participating artisan or unit industrialist.
• Daily allowance (DA) at the rate of Rs 400 per day per person.

The scheme document also provides for the officials of the department who staff these events:

• Honorarium at Rs 400 per day, in addition to the normal daily allowance, for officials on duty at the India International Trade Fair, New Delhi and other fairs and exhibitions held in major cities.
• Winter clothing allowance not exceeding Rs 3,500 during such a trade fair, a practical provision for staff sent from a coastal territory to Delhi in December.

Who is eligible to participate?

You can apply if:

• You are an artisan or a unit industrialist from Puducherry. That is the eligibility condition the department states.
• You make industrial, handicraft or cottage industry products suitable for display and sale at an exhibition or fair.
• You apply against a specific event for which the District Industries Centre has called applications.

You are not eligible, and cannot apply, if:

• You are not an artisan or unit industrialist, or your unit is located outside the Union Territory of Puducherry.
• You are a trader or reseller with no production of your own. The scheme is a producers' marketing platform, not a retail opportunity.
• You are seeking a cash grant unconnected to an event. The benefit is travel reimbursement and daily allowance for actually attending an exhibition the department has organised, and nothing is payable to someone who does not travel and participate.
• No event has been notified for which applications are open. This scheme runs event by event rather than continuously.

Selection for a particular fair rests with the District Industries Centre, since stall space at any event is limited.

What documents are required?

How to apply for participation

1. Watch for the notification. The District Industries Centre publishes notices for exhibitions, training programmes and other calls on dic.py.gov.in. Applications are called for each event.
2. Take a print of the prescribed application form from the Centre's application forms download area at dic.py.gov.in/application-forms-download-area, or collect a hard copy from the Centre.
3. Fill in all the mandatory fields, paste your passport-size photograph and sign across it, and attach self-attested copies of your artisan or unit registration, residence proof, Aadhaar and bank passbook.
4. Visit the District Industries Centre at Industrial Estate, Thattanchavady, Puducherry 605009 on a working day during office hours, and submit the duly filled and signed form with the documents to the concerned authority. Applicants from Karaikal can approach the Functional Manager, District Industries Centre, Rural Industrial Estate, Kottucherry, Karaikal 609609.
5. Collect your unique number. On receipt of the application, the Centre makes entries in the application receipt register and assigns a unique number to each applicant. That number identifies you in all further correspondence and serves as the acknowledgement of receipt.
6. Keep your travel tickets from the event, since the travel claim is settled against second-class railway fare actually incurred.

How do I check the status of my application?

1. Quote the unique number assigned to you from the application receipt register when you contact the Centre.
2. Contact the District Industries Centre at +91-413-2248987, 2248391 or 2249392, or the Karaikal office at +91-4368-266467.
3. Watch dic.py.gov.in for the selection lists and event notices, the Centre posts notifications for its schemes there, and the site carries a "page last updated" date so you can see how current the notice board is.

Common reasons applications do not go through

• Applying outside an event window, when no fair has been notified.
• Not being an artisan or unit industrialist of Puducherry, which is the stated eligibility condition.
• Incomplete form; missing photograph, unsigned declaration or no registration proof.
• Limited stall space, which means a valid applicant may not be selected for a particular event and should apply again for the next one.
• Travel tickets not produced, which holds up settlement of the fare claim even after participation.

Related marketing support in Puducherry

The District Industries Centre also runs a rent subsidy for sales emporia established by handicrafts societies and micro and small industries emporia, at 90 per cent of rent up to Rs 10,000 a month for three years, with 75 per cent of infrastructure and interior decoration expenses up to Rs 1,50,000, and grant-in-aid to industrial associations, CII and industrial NGOs for promotion of SME clusters at 75 per cent of actual cost up to Rs 3,00,000 per unit in the cluster. Separately, the Industries and Commerce Department's Market Development Support Assistance reimburses 50 per cent of stall rent, literature and display material up to Rs 5,00,000 for an industrial unit participating in an international trade fair as part of an industry association, subject to prior approval of the Director of Industries.

Help and contact

• District Industries Centre, Industrial Estate, Thattanchavady, Puducherry 605009 — +91-413-2248987, 2248391, 2249392
• Karaikal; Functional Manager, Rural Industrial Estate, Kottucherry, Karaikal 609609 to +91-4368-266467
• Citizen's Charter; dic.py.gov.in/sites/default/files/citizencharter.pdf
• Grievance redressal, industry.py.gov.in/grievance-redressal-mechanism