The government silk filature, Chikkahalli is one of the four such units owned by the government of Karnataka. These units purchase silkworm cocoons from regulated cocoon markets and sell reeled silk in the silk exchanges. The Chikkahalli unit had been incurring losses for several years and all measures to improve the performance had failed. This was particularly disappointing because private reeling units having smaller capacities were reporting profits. The joint director of the Karnataka Sericulture Department and the general manager of the unit explore various avenues for improving the profitability.