Bangladesh Handloom Board

Established January 1978 under the Bangladesh Handloom Board Ordinance, 1977 (Ordinance No. LV of 1977), amended by the Bangladesh Handloom Board Act, 2013. Head office: BTMC Building (5th Floor), 7-9 Kawran Bazaar, Dhaka-1215. Chairman is Abu Ahmed Siddiquei (Additional Secretary on deputation); confirmed for 2024 from bhb.gov.bd officers page and mawbiz.com.bd; no verifiable change of chairmanship found for 2026, so head_since is left null. Staff: 372 sanctioned posts (permanent + temporary), of which 237 occupied as of the most recent Prothom Alo figure; staff_count reflects sanctioned strength. Jamdani GI: Bangladesh was the first country to register Jamdani as a GI product (2016, DPDT); Dhakai Muslin GI followed in 2020 with BHB as applicant. Weaver base: 1.5 million workers cited consistently across Banglapedia, Wikipedia, and official portal; this is the standard BHB figure and includes both direct and cooperative-linked weavers. Loom shed programme (8,064 sheds) sourced from TBS News August 2025. The board serves Sirajganj (31% of national output) and Tangail (10.9%) as primary weaver districts; microcredit 5% service charge figure from academic sources cross-checked against BHB mandate documents. No FY2025-26 budget line item for BHB was found in public government budget documents; annual_budget_bdt left null. Activity score 4: BHB is a low-media-visibility entity; the Jamdani GI discourse and loom shed programme are the main traceable activities in the 90-day window. Activity evidence hold: removed 2 exact generated refresh event(s) on read. Generated scores, positions, activity actions and verification stamps are unavailable. Retained events and unmatched action text require source review; original raw records are unchanged.