Preamble

Industrial Revolution in U.K. during 1750 - 1850 gave birth to Textile Machinery. The dominance of India in the field of cotton textiles produced by very skilled manpower was disturbing the British. Systematic development of textile industry with spinning and powerloom machinery was initiated in Lancashire and Manchester to discourage the Indian weavers. Rest is however known to everybody how the machinery industry was developed and nurtured by the respective Governments in the UK and later by Germany and Switzerland followed by others in Europe.

In India, machinery manufacture started in the 50s, continued and progressed during 60s & 70s and thereafter. The Government policy to ban expansion of the organized weaving sector during late 60s created/ supported the decentralized powerloom sector. Too much of importance to handlooms and low level technology power looms in the subsequent years, keeping a large list of reserved items for handlooms, throttled the mill industry which lost its initiative for creativity as well as production for the masses.

Low level of production in handlooms and low quality production in powerlooms made us uncompetitive in the subsequent years. The Governments regulative pressures on the Mill Industry continued to play havoc for the weaving industry till the introduction of 1985 Textile Policy and finally revolutionary Industrial Policy in 1991.

Development and technology growth in the TEI

The Textile Engineering Industry (TEI) during the late 60s, 70s and 80s had received some Government support in the form of foreign collaboration approvals, import assistance by way of phased manufacturing programme and concessional customs duty certification for imported parts and components for manufacture of specified textile machinery. Import duty on components and parts in general was very high at 85% excluding CVD and not conducive for indigenous development. The concessional duty on imported parts, components etc. mentioned above did help the Industry. The then Governments policy was also supportive that no import of machinery was allowed if there was adequate indigenous production. The local textile industry therefore had no choice but to buy the Indian machinery.

This policy helped the TEI to develop and manufacture spinning machinery in the country of the desired quality and quantity. There was no competition from outsider. Internal competition among various players made the development easier and faster. Foreign manufacturers had no choice but to enter into collaborations with local manufacturers. This happened not only in spinning but also in processing machinery. The following collaborations are worth mentioning:

* Presently not in operation