HANDLOOMS 51 of coordination between the industries and cooperation departments, the absence of serious efforts to revive the weak or dormant societies and the lack of sufficient promotional interest taken by the financing banks* In West Bengal, dormant weavers' societies and membership of dormant societies account for a larger coverage of total weavers^ societies and total membership than in Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Delhi (see Table II). Even many of the active primary societies do not fulfil the norms of viability set by the Reserve Bank of India to obtain its refinance facilities. These two factors probably explain the limited number of societies in West Bengal on whose behalf limits are applied by the district central cooperative banks.23 Adequate research on diversification of handloom products to cater for a wider export market as well as home market has hardly been attempted in West Bengal in a macro level framework. Similarly, other aspects of improvement in design, colour and fabrics have remained neglected so that the West Bengal handloom products, apart from a few finest varieties, face strong competition from other states. The majority of weavers is unable to acquaint itself with the innovations and developments in weaving techniques rendeicd by Weavers' Service Centre or the State Handloom Design Centre at Calcutta because of wide communication and accessibility gap. Although the export production project and intensive development project, initiated during the fifth plan, are designed to take care of production diversification, loom moderni" zation, design innovations and other quality improvements, the area and scale of operation of both the projects arc restricted to only a few pockets and to an insignificant number of looms.23 Skill generation for different handloom weaving techniques in the State is restricted to family heritage which has given rise to a localized pattern of weaving skill and technique and as such to a distinct regional variation in production patterns. In the present organizational framework there has hardly been any systematic approach for skill diffusion and interaction at spatial level to introduce a qualitative improvement and adoption of better skill and technology in areas where the weavers arc less skilled than those in other prospective areas. (Concluded) 1 Paschim Banger Tant Shilpa 1973, pp 7, 1 la-12c. Paschim Banger Tanf Shilpa 1977. Another 8,852 spindles were to be installed as a first phase of the expansion programme during the fifth plan. The production of this