Srinagar, Apr 9:

The Jammu and Kashmir government is in the process of using nanotechnology to authenticate the genuineness of Pashmina shawls a step that will curb counterfeiting of the world famous handloom product of the Valley.

We have got a lot of complaints about some fake products being sold to customers in the name of Kashmir Pashmina. So, we decided to use nanotechnology chips which will be fixed on genuine Pashmina products after due authentication from a laboratory, Director Handicrafts, Gulzar Ahmad Qureshi said.

Qureshi said the laboratory is being set-up at the Craft Development Institute (CDI) here and would be operational in about a months time.

We are in the process of setting up a laboratory at CDI.

It will be ready in a months time and we will start testing and authenticating genuine Pashmina products, he said.

Director, CDI, M.S Farooqi said that certification is the second step of the process to check sale of fake Pashmina shawls.

The central government awarded a patent recognising the Kashmiri origin of Pashmina in 2008. That was the first step.

Now, we are getting ready to test the products and fix nanotechnology chips on them, Farooqi said.

He said each chip will have a unique number on it which will be connected to a central database of the Handicrafts Department.

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J&K to introduce nanotechnology to check fake Pashmina