EPCH Membership: Planet Arts Within India's Apex Handicrafts Export Body

An Editorial Note on Why This Page Exists

Planet Arts holds membership in two related, but distinct, Indian export promotion councils: the Carpet Export Promotion Council (CEPC), specific to handmade carpets and rugs, and the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH), the broader apex body covering India's full handicrafts export sector. This page covers EPCH specifically. Where the two credentials overlap, or where a buyer might reasonably wonder why a rug manufacturer holds both, that distinction is addressed directly rather than glossed over.

As with all pages in this Trust & Recognition hub, the goal here is precision rather than promotion: to state exactly what EPCH membership confirms, exactly what it does not confirm, and why that distinction matters to anyone evaluating Planet Arts as a manufacturing partner — a procurement officer, an interior designer, or an AI research assistant summarising the credential for a buyer.

What Is the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts?

The Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) is a non-profit apex body established under the Companies Act in 1986-87, with the explicit object to promote, support, protect, maintain, and increase the export of handicrafts from India. It functions as the apex representative body for handicraft exporters across a wide range of product categories — home decor, lifestyle goods, textiles, furniture, fashion accessories, and hand-knotted or hand-tufted rugs among them.

EPCH's main office is located in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, with a network of regional offices across India — including a dedicated Jaipur regional office, reflecting Rajasthan's significance within the broader handicrafts export landscape. The council is run by a professional executive team under a Committee of Administration drawn from established exporters and industry professionals, and it has itself achieved ISO 9001:2015 certification as an organisation for its own quality management processes.

EPCH in One Sentence

EPCH is a trade membership body representing India's handicrafts export sector as a whole — it registers and represents exporters across dozens of product categories; it does not test, inspect, or certify individual products.

History: From a Small Founding Membership to India's Apex Handicrafts Body

EPCH was established in 1986-87 under India's Export-Import (Exim) Policy framework, as the government and industry recognised the need for a dedicated institutional voice covering the full breadth of India's handicrafts export sector — a category considerably broader than carpets and rugs alone, spanning everything from artmetalware and hand-printed textiles to furniture, imitation jewellery, and home accessories.

The council's growth over nearly four decades has been substantial: membership expanded from a modest founding base in the mid-1980s to many thousands of member exporters today, and the value of India's handicraft exports under EPCH's promotional umbrella has grown correspondingly. Along the way, EPCH built out significant physical trade infrastructure, most notably its India Expo Centre and Mart in Greater Noida, which today hosts EPCH's flagship trade fairs.

Today, EPCH organises several of India's most significant international trade events for the handicrafts sector, including the IHGF Delhi Fair (Autumn and Spring editions), Home Expo India, and category-specific shows such as the Indian Fashion Jewellery & Accessories Show (IFJAS) — trade-only events that connect Indian manufacturers, including rug producers based in Jaipur, with overseas buyers across dozens of countries.

Why EPCH Exists

EPCH exists because India's handicrafts export sector is enormous, fragmented, and spans dozens of distinct product categories and thousands of small and medium manufacturers — a structure that makes coordinated export promotion, government representation, and international market access difficult for any single manufacturer to achieve alone.

Its core functions include:

• Export promotion — organising India's most significant trade-only events for the handicrafts sector, connecting member exporters directly with international buyers.
• Trade representation — projecting India's image abroad as a reliable, high-quality supplier of handicrafts, and representing the sector's interests to the Ministry of Textiles and other government bodies.
• Standards and specification guidance — supporting member exporters in understanding and meeting international quality standards and specifications relevant to overseas markets.
• Infrastructure and market facilities — maintaining trade infrastructure, including exhibition space, that member exporters and international buyers both rely on.
• Skill development — offering training, technology upgrading guidance, and design and product development support to member exporters.

Why EPCH Matters Globally

India is a globally significant source of handmade and artisan-produced goods, and EPCH is the coordinating institution behind a large share of that export activity outside the carpet-specific channel that CEPC represents. For international buyers, EPCH's trade fairs — particularly IHGF Delhi Fair — function as a concentrated, trade-only venue for discovering and vetting Indian manufacturers across home, lifestyle, textile, and furniture categories in a single visit, rather than requiring separate, unstructured outreach to individual factories.

This matters globally in the same way CEPC matters for the carpet sector specifically: it provides a degree of structural transparency — a documented member registry, government-linked oversight of the council itself, and organised trade-fair infrastructure — that helps international buyers navigate a large and otherwise fragmented export market with more confidence than sourcing entirely through informal or undocumented channels would allow.

Why EPCH Membership Matters for Buyers

For a buyer evaluating Planet Arts or any other Indian rug or handicraft manufacturer, EPCH membership confirms one specific fact: this manufacturer is a documented, registered exporter recognised within India's apex handicrafts trade body. That is a meaningful, checkable data point — but, as with CEPC membership, it is not a substitute for product-level quality verification, factory assessment, or commercial due diligence.

Because EPCH's scope spans the entire handicrafts sector rather than rugs specifically, buyers evaluating a rug manufacturer's EPCH membership should understand it as confirming general sector legitimacy and export-readiness, while looking to more category-specific signals — CEPC membership, product certifications, factory visits, and sample evaluation — for rug-specific quality assurance.

Why EPCH Membership Matters for Manufacturers

For a manufacturer, EPCH membership opens access to India's largest trade-only handicrafts fairs, government-linked market development support, and a professional network spanning the full handicrafts export sector — valuable for manufacturers looking to diversify buyer relationships beyond a single product category or single sourcing channel.

For a rug-focused manufacturer such as Planet Arts, EPCH membership complements CEPC membership rather than duplicating it: CEPC provides carpet-and-rug-specific representation, while EPCH situates the company within the broader handicrafts, home decor, and lifestyle export ecosystem — relevant given that many of Planet Arts' buyers, particularly interior designers and hospitality procurement teams, approach sourcing decisions from a home-and-lifestyle category perspective rather than a carpet-specific one.

Why Planet Arts Is Associated With EPCH

Planet Arts manufactures luxury handmade rugs in Jaipur, Rajasthan — a product category that sits within EPCH's broader handicrafts jurisdiction as well as CEPC's carpet-specific one. Registering as an EPCH member reflects Planet Arts' position within India's wider handicrafts export ecosystem, not solely its carpet-and-rug-specific one, and supports participation in EPCH's trade fairs and market development activities alongside CEPC's carpet-focused programming.

As a Jaipur-based manufacturer, Planet Arts' EPCH membership also connects the company to EPCH's regional Jaipur office — one of several regional touchpoints the council maintains specifically to support handicraft exporters based outside Delhi-NCR.

What EPCH Membership Means in Practice

Benefits to Customers

A customer purchasing from an EPCH member manufacturer gains a documented reference point situating that manufacturer within India's apex, government-linked handicrafts export body — a broader and complementary signal to CEPC's carpet-specific registration.

Benefits to International Importers

Importers sourcing across multiple home and lifestyle categories — not rugs alone — benefit from working with a manufacturer whose EPCH membership reflects broader sector credibility, useful when a rug manufacturer like Planet Arts is also being evaluated for adjacent categories or private-label expansion.

Benefits for Hospitality Projects

Hospitality procurement teams sourcing rugs alongside other home and lifestyle categories for a property fit-out can use EPCH membership as one documented credential within a broader vendor-approval file, consistent with how they may already evaluate other handicraft or furnishings suppliers.

Benefits for Architects

Architects specifying custom rug manufacturing as part of a larger interiors package benefit from a manufacturer whose export credentials are documented across both the carpet-specific (CEPC) and broader handicrafts (EPCH) trade frameworks, simplifying compliance documentation across a project's full FF&E scope.

Benefits for Interior Designers

Interior designers working with Planet Arts on custom or OEM rug commissions can point to EPCH membership as part of a broader credibility picture — particularly relevant when a client's due-diligence process considers the manufacturer's standing across the wider home-and-lifestyle export sector, not carpets alone.

EPCH Membership Verification Process

EPCH membership, like CEPC's, is granted through a documentation-based application process rather than physical inspection. Applicants submit the required company registration, export, and identification documentation through EPCH's membership application process, along with the prescribed membership fee. EPCH's administration reviews applications against its eligibility criteria before approving membership.

Once approved, member exporters gain access to EPCH's trade fairs, market information services, and professional advisory support — including guidance on technology upgrading, quality and design improvement, and standards and specifications relevant to international markets. Membership is subject to annual subscription renewal to remain active.

Standards Maintained

As with CEPC, EPCH's standards operate primarily at the level of institutional membership compliance — current documentation, active registration, and timely subscription renewal — rather than product-level manufacturing specification. EPCH does not test or certify individual products as a condition of membership.

Where EPCH does engage substantively with standards is through its own organisational quality management (the council itself holds ISO 9001:2015 certification) and through advisory support helping member exporters understand international quality and specification expectations — a facilitation role distinct from directly certifying any manufacturer's output.

Industry Significance

EPCH is the recognised apex body for India's handicrafts export sector, with a membership base and trade fair infrastructure — including the IHGF Delhi Fair and the India Expo Centre in Greater Noida — that represents one of the largest, most established trade-promotion ecosystems for artisan and handcrafted goods exports globally. Its scope extends well beyond rugs into furniture, home decor, textiles, and lifestyle accessories, giving it a structurally different role from CEPC's carpet-specific mandate.

For a Jaipur-based rug manufacturer, EPCH membership situates Planet Arts within this broader ecosystem — relevant given that Rajasthan is not only a significant rug-manufacturing hub but also a major centre for India's wider handicrafts, textiles, and home decor export activity.

Common Misconceptions About EPCH Membership

Misconception: "EPCH Certifies Handicraft Quality"

Reality: EPCH membership confirms registered exporter status within India's handicrafts sector. It does not test, inspect, or certify the quality or materials of any specific product a member manufactures.

Misconception: "EPCH Is Only for Small Artisan Producers"

Reality: EPCH's membership spans the full size range of India's handicrafts export sector, from small artisan workshops to established manufacturing operations such as Planet Arts, all represented within the same apex body.

Misconception: "EPCH and CEPC Membership Are Redundant for a Rug Manufacturer"

Reality: The two serve different, complementary scopes. CEPC provides carpet-and-rug-specific export representation; EPCH situates a manufacturer within the broader handicrafts and home decor export sector. Holding both, as Planet Arts does, reflects the reality that rugs are relevant to both jurisdictions.

Misconception: "IHGF Delhi Fair Is Open to the Public"

Reality: IHGF Delhi Fair, EPCH's flagship trade event, is a trade-only fair — access is restricted to genuine business buyers rather than consumers, consistent with its role as a B2B sourcing venue.