G Thakuria lost a decade in his life. He will not tell you what he was up to and it is anybody’s guess, given the fact that he is in Assam’s Chhaygaon, which was once a hotbed of insurgency. But today, Thakuria has found his calling - at the Fabric Plus factory. Chhaygaon, 70 km away from Guwahati, has transformed over the years with the Assam Government developing it as an industrial growth centre.
 

Fabric Plus, on its part, has touched the lives of many like Thakuria. Founded by Dilip Barooah, who was the first to cash in on the changing scenario, the industrial unit is a symbol of the new emerging industrial Assam. 
 

One day he chucked them all, even leaving behind the wealth he earned due to some legal tangle and was back in Mumbai. However he had 27 years of textile experience, contacts and lot of goodwill. “I was back to square one. From driving BMW to riding Bus Number  11,” says Barooah philosophically. But there was a burning desire to establish a company that deals with weaving and exporting of pure silk products made of exquisite Eri, Muga and Mulberry/Pat silk exclusive to the Northeast. 
 

It was a passion for Assam silk, the immense potential it had offshore by value addition and innovation that has seen Fabric Plus catering to fashion giants like Armani, Hugo Boss, Just Cavalli, Chopard and Moschino among other brands.
 

Barooah started from scratch in 2003 in a 100 sq ft garage space with three members and almost zero investment. They started with R & D and sampling of pure silk product and soon became a registered silk exporting company.  Within a year their turnover was Rs 14 lakh and there has been no turning back since then. The projected turnover in 2010 is Rs 700 lakh, almost double of the previous year’s.
 

As a social entrepreneur for Chhaygaon,  Barooah has helped the region’s growth. The Eri silk spinning mill alone has impacted the lives of 350 spinners and weavers and benefitted 4500 people engaged in silk/cocoon rearing and marketing. “Just two years ago there was absolutely nothing in this region, no source of income for the educated youths but with the Fabric Plus project an industrial atmosphere is building up,” says Trailokya Burman, a team member at Fabric Plus.
 

Burman echoes Barooah’s dislike for titles and designations that stem from the exploitation and everyday human rights violation he saw in the Mumbai mills as a young manager.  “We are all part of a family, everyone cooperates and there is no designation whatsoever,” says G Thakuria. Adds Barooah:  “The workers were paid peanuts, worked in unhygienic conditions, forced to do overtime and when I was the general manager my work was not to run the textile mill but find ways to retrench labour.” This pained him and he vowed to treat his workers as team members with due respect and dignity. He practises what he preaches and his visiting card is sans any designation.
 

“Once the people who feared bombs now see their women folk cycling to work, changing their lifestyle and heralding betterment in economy, health and work ethics,” says Barooah. Apart from Chhaygaon, Fabric Plus also has factories at Amingaon (Assam), Dhatrigram (West Bengal) and a unit for hand spinning of Eri silk yarns at Mirza (Assam).

ARCHANA Kalita, all of 10 years, was returning home with her two friends, Mimi and Kalpita, from a makeshift village school 4.5 km away in the neighbouring hamlet. They were barefoot, tired and hungry, and were desperate to reach home. The sun was nearly on the horizon as the friends hurried along. Boom! 
    Archana found herself lifted and flung into the rice field below. When she came around, she found people hunched over her. She looked around. Her clothes were tattered and blackened; she was bleeding and couldn’t move her right leg. Little Mimi’s body lay on either side of the road. Kalpita, too, was dead; the shrapnel had passed through her head. Archana was rushed to the nearest healthcare centre. That evening, the only words she cried over and over were "moi ma-ar usoroloi jabo bisarisu" (I want to go to ma). 
    That was 2000, when Archana’s village Chaygaon, located 70 km from Guwahati, was a hotbed of Ulfa (United Liberation Front of Assam) insurgency. Back then, when Assam bolted its doors with the sunset, only fear stalked the streets. Daylight didn’t bring any respite, as residents waited for the next blast. 
    Ten years on, some things haven’t changed, some things have. Archana still lives in Chaygaon. But she now lives more under a promise of prosperity and less under a shadow of violence. She is now a confident, 20-year-old woman. “I work there, at Fabric Plus,” she says, with a twinkle in her eye and a finger pointing to a textile unit that was set up in August 2009. Fabric Plus manufactures and exports silk yarn, fabrics, designer fashion and homefashion accessories. The 9-crore company, which began operations in 2003 and sells its products under the brand Silk Country, has two manufacturing facilities and two showrooms in Assam. Guwahati in the midst of a retail revolution 
    FABRIC Plus is symbolic of the change happening in Chaygaon, and in other parts of the state that was once torn by violence and is still reminded off its bloody past every now and then. 
    In 2008, Chaygaon got an industrial centre. Spread over 133 acres, it currently has six tenants. Besides Fabric Plus, there is CG Foods (manufacturer of Wai Wai noodles), Sona Vets (animal-food products), Rausheena Udyog (engineering), Prag Electrical (electrical gear) and GM Ispat (steel). 
    “The insurgency fear is gradually fading away,” says Dilip Barooah, managing director of Fabric Plus, who moved to Mumbai after completing his studies in Assam and is now finding a reason to come back. “An investor-friendly climate is being created. This prompted me to set up a unit in Chaygaon last year, where about 140 women work.” One of those 140 women is Archana. Her life has completely changed. “This job is Godsent, it’s a great opportunity. I’ve been able to buy gold jewellery also,” she laughs, the violence of the past tucked away in the recesses of her mind. 
    The industrial centre has created 3,000 direct jobs and 2,000 indirect jobs.  About 4,500 families in and around Chaygaon, in the formerly terror centres of Udalguri, Karbi Anglong and Kokrajhar, are now supplying eri silk cocoons to Mr Barooah’s unit, among others. Each family earns about 5,000 a month from supplying cocoons. link: http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=ETNEW&BaseHref=ETM/2010/07/26&PageLabel=1&EntityId=Ar00101&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T

New silk yarn manufacturing unit in State
BUSINESS REPORTER
 GUWAHATI, Aug 14 – A mega silk yarn manufacturing unit promoted by a group of leading entrepreneurs of the State will be inaugurated on August 19. 

The project, being set up at the Chaygaon Industrial Estate with an investment of Rs 5.50 crore, will manufacture 60 MT of endi, muga and other span silk yarns per annum. 

The project has been set up in association with the Central Silk Board, NEDFi and the State Sericulture Department, which will generate employment nearly 900.

Providing feedback on the new project, Dilip Barooah, one of the promoters, said that endi and muga products of the State enjoy a special place in the global textile market for which the unit has been set up. “We have tied up with leading designers to make our products more attractive,” he added.

Barooah, who has been closely associated with the export market for a long time, observed that the local artisans would be immensely benefited from the project. 

The promoters have incorporated new technology with the project so that it can produce other yarns in case of any shortage of endi and muga in future.

Asked about the endi and muga market in the backdrop of global economic meltdown, Barooah termed the problem as a temporary one. “Our endi and muga products are still insulated from the crisis. So considering the situation, we will be able to attract international buyers,” he said.

The North East contributes nearly six per cent of the total silk production of the country. According to an estimate of the Central Silk Board, nearly 3,08,806 families of the North East are dependent on the silk sector. Currently, 55,719 hectares of land in the region are being used for rearing silkworms. 

Union Minister of Textiles Dayanidhi Maran will formally inaugurate the unit.

GUWAHATI: Entrepreneurs from Northeast India have started making their presence felt in the international markets. Silk products from the region have started getting attention on the world stage.

Assam based Fabric Plus Ltd which also has units in West Bengal is exporting designer fabrics for fashion and home fashion, including made-ups like stoles, ties, curtain panels cushions, corporate gifts to European and US market. The company is using natural silks and silk-mixed with natural fibers like linen, wool, cotton for making these products.

The company already has three units and is setting up the fourth one in Chhaygaon near Guwahati. The unit will be inaugurated by union minister of textiles, Dayanadhi Maran on August 19.