Pooja Sharma, Chairperson of Sikkim Film Board participated as a speaker in LOOMS Conclave by Women’s Indian Chamber of Commerce& Industry (WICCI) on Handlooms and Khadi by India Bangladesh Business Council at Vivanta, Guwahati. At the conference, she was felicitated with the ‘Exceptional Women of Excellence ‘ Award by WICCI, WEF and ALL Ladies League.

She received the award from Dr Harbeen Arora Rai, the Founder and National President of WICCI. Mrs Sharma’s topic was ‘ Can IPR and AI partnership transforms the Handloom and Khadi sector? She spoke on how in developing nations, there is a huge gap between rural and urban weavers with respect to knowledge sharing, one of the reasons being the lack of dissemination of proper and accurate information as a person from mass communication bridge this gap and give equal opportunity to a weaver from the rural areas as its urban counterpart to take advantage of Artificial Intelligence and make their products accessible worldwide.

AI is a double-edged sword, she also emphasised how media would ensure that a weaver holds on to the positive impact of AI and does not become a victim of AI.’