Mumbai: India’s Gem and Jewellery Promotion Council (GJEPC) is teaming up with the commerce ministry to set up a gold craft and design institute at Udupi in Karnataka in an effort to re-skill local freelance artisans.

The institute, with an express aim to revive manufacturing activity in Dakshina Kannada cluster, will have a common facility centre to help freelance artisans of the Udupi region work with state-of-art machines in the jewellery sector.

The new institute in Karnataka, an official said, will be set up on the lines of the Footwear Design and Development Institute of Leather. The jewellery sector is a labour intensive one and also contributes significantly to India’s exports. The GJEPC is currently working on setting up the training facility and finalising managing, financial and trade partners for the project. It will also collaborate with the Udupi Jewellers Association to revive the manufacturing activity in the Dakshina Kannada cluster.

Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, a Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka, had recently inaugurated the Indian Institute of Gems and Jewellery (IIGJ) in Varanasi. The export of gems and jewellery from India stood at USD 39 billion in 2015-16.