Though floor coverings in India are one of the
most ancient crafts followed till date the typical pilled carpet more
commonly known as the Kashmiri carpet in India and oriental carpet
internationally reached here in the 14th century. Since then the carpet
industry has developed leaps and bound in terms of production, styles
and patterns and so in the markets.
Indian carpet industry is primarily export oriented. Though it
experienced a major set back during 1996 -2000 due to the involvement of
the child labor, it has over come the jolt by implying special measures
like "rugmark" and "kaleen " labels that ensure the
non involvement of child labor.
The major carpet producing regions (including all types of floor
coverings and durries) are Agra-Bhadoi belt in Uttar Pradesh, Kashnir,
Bikaner-Udaipur belt in Rajasthan, West Bengal, Haryana, Punjab and
Andhra Pradesh. There are 1215 carpet manufacturing units recorded and
of that 190 are in the organized sector and the rest are in small scale
industry sector.