The Central Silk Board
India owes its place on the world silk scenario in this century to the efforts of this apex body constituted soon after Independence. It is located at Bangalore.
1.6.1 MEMBERS OF CSB The CSB has been entrusted with the overall responsibility of developing the silk industry, covering the full gamut of sericultural activities in the country, from the development of food plants to the production of fabrics, including the formulation of policies governing imports and exports. It is a statutory body, presently under the administrative control of the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India. It has 36 members including the Chairman, Vice-Chairman and the Member Secretary. The others include members of the Lok Sabha, members of the Rajya Sabha, representatives of the state and central governments, and representatives from the industry and trade. It is reconstituted every three years.
1.6.2 FUNCTIONS OF CSB The major functions of the Board are -1. Promoting and developing the silk industry by such measures as it thinks fit. 2. Undertaking, assisting and encouraging scientific, technological and economic research in the various aspects of sericulture 3. Developing and distributing healthy silkworm seeds 4. Devising means of improved methods of mulberry cultivation, silkworm rearing, silk reeling and spinning 5. Initiating measures of standardisation and quality control of silk and silk products 6. Rationalisation of marketing and stabilization of prices of silk cocoons and raw silk 7. Organizing pre-shipment inspection of silk goods for export 8. Collection of statistics pertaining to mulberry acreage, cocoons harvested, raw silk produced, etc. 9. Preparing and furnishing relevant reports relating to silk industry to the Central Government 10 Advising the Central Government on all matters relating to the development of silk industry including import and export of raw silk, silk fabrics and silk wastes. At the State level, sericultural interests are looked after by the respective governments. CSB, in addition to co-ordinating the activities of the various states, also determines the amount to be allocated for sericulture promotion to each state under the Five Year Plans. Initially, the Board's role was purely advisory in nature. In 1958, sericulture training and research and Basic Seed production were brought under its purview. Later on pre-shipment inspection of silk goods exported from the country as well as the import and distribution of raw silk under the canalisation policy came under its jurisdiction. It has also now taken up several developmental policies to supplement the efforts of the state governments. It has established the International Centre for Training and Research in Tropical Sericulture in 1980 under a bilateral assistance scheme between India and Switzerland. It has launched the National Sericulture Project (1989-1994) with the collaboration of the five traditional sericultural States (Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Jammu & Kashmir), aided by the World Bank and Swiss Development Co-operation and this has helped in expanding sericulture to non-traditional states.
1.6.3 ORGANIZATIONAL SET-UP OF CSB The Central Silk Board has now grown into a big organization. To help in its co-ordination with the State and Central agencies, it has five Regional offices at New Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Srinagar and Bangalore and seven Regional Development offices at Bhubaneshwar, Guwahati, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Malda, Chennai (Madras) and Patna. These conduct surveys and feasibility studies, evaluate and oversee the ongoing projects, collect sericultural statistics and send periodical reports to the headquarters to facilitate monitoring of the development of sericulture in the country and to work out strategies for further development. The Central Silk Board has the sole authority to decide the import and export policy of silk raw materials and finished goods. It has the authority to issue REP license to the importers. It alone has the power to issue `Centrosilk' stamp essential for export items. The pre-shipment examination work is done by two Certification Centres at Varanasi and Bhagalpur. For helping in the production of quality silk, it has established four Silk Conditioning and Testing houses at Bangalore, Srinagar, Dharmavaram and Chennai (Madras).
For ensuring that quality seeds are available and distributed to the farmers, a National Silkworm Bangalore in 1981. Its objective is to supply both bivoltine and multi x bivoltine seeds to the farmers. Special P3, P2 and pi stations have been set up to meet the Basic Seed requirements of this organisation. Two cold storage plants have been started in Karnataka for supporting the work of this project for storing the diapausing bivoltine eggs. Apart from these, there are 32 silkworm seed production centres, 34 Basic Seed farms and 3 more cold storage
units spread over the mulberry cultivation areas throughout the country under the control of CSB. The Mysore Seed Cocoon Procurement and Sales Centre, which helps the seed cocoon rearers, is also under its administration. For ensuring that the rearers get a fair price for their produce, the CSB has set up ten cocoon markets spread throughout the country. It has established as many as 80 Technical Service Centres in different parts of the country, seven Demonstration-cum-Training Centres (attached to CSTRI) both for training and giving technical advice to the farmers in the reeling and spinning operations. It has installed two economic ovens in Karnataka. It is also responsible for the observance of a Silk Day during the Handloom Week throughout the country. The most important contribution of the CSB is towards the promotion and direction of research in sericulture. For mulberry sericulture, there are two Central Sericultural Research and Training Institutes (CSR & TI), at Mysore and Berhampore. For research and training in non-mulberry sericulture, the CSB has so far set up four institutes—The Central Tasar Research and Training Institute, Ranchi; The Central Muga Research Institute, Jorhat;
The Central Eri Research Institute, Mandhipathar and The Central Eri and Muga Research Station, . The work of these institutes is supported by the Regional Sericultural Research Stations (RSRS). The RSRS for mulberry research are located in—Chamrajnagar (for rainfed mulberry) and Bangalore (for irrigated mulberry) (Karnataka), Salem and Coonoor (Tamil Nadu), Anantapur (Andhra Pradesh), Trivandrum ( kerala) , Kalimpong (West Bengal), Ranchi (Bihar), Dehra Dun (uttar Pradesh), Jorhat (Assam), Dhule (Maharashtra), Koraput (Orissa) and Pampore (Jammu). The last was made into a
full-fledged Central Research and Training Institute during the National Sericulture Project period.
There are six regional research stations for tasar sericulture and one for muga sericulture. The International Centre for Training and Research in Tropical Sericulture (ICTRETS) at CSR&TI, Mysore is also under CSB control. The Centre offers training in tropical sericulture. A wide network of extension centres in the various states disseminate the laboratory findings and transfer the technology to the farmers. To co-ordinate the research activities of the various institutes as well as to make available the research data and production statistics to the scientists and farmers, the CSB is publishing CSB News Letter, Indian Silk, Seridoc, Indian Journal of Sericulture, Silk in India and Silkman's Companion. Apart from these, it publishes
books, pamphlets, training manuals and quarterly reports to make available and popularize
the data obtained by its research institutes. Some of the manuals are published in the vernaculars also. Data on CSB publications are available on request with the Director, CSR&TI, Mysore or Berhampore. The CSB became a member of the International Silk Association (ISA) in 1958. India has also been a member nation of the International Sericultural Commission since 1960. It took part in the UNESCO-organized Exhibition on Silk at Delhi in 1956 and from then on has participated in all International Silk Exhibitions. The Central Silk Board has organized many International Silk Conferences, Symposiums, and Workshops. CSB scientists have also been honoured with International Awards on sericulture research and promotion. The last International Conference on Sericulture organised by the CSB in 1994 was "The Global Silk Scenario 2001". CSB and ISEPC (Indian Silk Export Promotion Council) have organized workshops on "Opportunities in Silk Exports".
