Backdrop

It is billed as the next biggest opportunity emerging in India. Estimates range from Rs. 6000 crores to Rs.80000 Crores by year 2015. Without getting into a debate of how accurate these estimates are, it is fair to say that India has the potential to feed this number on its own. The government believes so and has instituted various measures such as National Mission on Technical Textiles to establish Indias presence in this sector. The beautiful part is, one need not have to look outside the country for business as IT had to do. There is a correlation between Prosperity and Consumption of Technical Textiles as witnessed in the US and Europe. This is precisely what is happening with Indias steady growth in recent years. It is little wonder that the US and Europe should look at India as the market to enter as they reckon that China and India will dominate this sector with a whopping 45% of the global business within the next 10 years.

There are two backdrops that have a direct bearing on the growth and development of Technical Textiles in India.

• Absence of an Evolved Eco System
• Absence of a mechanism that would allow for easy entry of SMEs into this segment

The first back drop is the absence of a technical textile eco system. It is not as evolved as the Tirupur Eco System that supports the Knitting Industry. The technical Textiles eco system may take time to evolve and consolidate because it is

• Capital Intensive
• Knowledge Intensive
• Skill Intensive
• Innovation Intensive

Innovation is an outcome of Capital, Knowledge and Skill and unless the grades of CKS are really high the question of Innovation will never arise and unless Innovation is possible, the Eco System is as good as dud apparatus. To explain it in a simple language, One may want to argue that Technical Textiles too does substantial business but what one has to bear in mind is that of the 10 bn dollar worth of business it does, 50% is imported largely in finished goods form with the rest in component or rolled goods form that are converted and assembled in India, with the rest of the domestic production, barring few exceptions, is largely confined to very low end commodity type products. To manage assembling and manufacturing low grade products, an eco system that is technical textile specific is not required, as a matter of fact if the industry fails to go above the business of importing and converting, the question of an Eco System forming in India does not arise at all.

The second backdrop is the absence of a mechanism that will enable the SMEs to enter Technical Textiles. It has to be borne in mind that the success of Technical Textiles in India will totally and absolutely depend on SMEs entry. Currently we do not have a mechanism that will enable the early entrants to make their progress right up the business entrance line. The awareness programme being conducted by institutions such as CII have generated a large number of prospects who are unable to move to the next stage up the business entrance line for want of an established and reliable mechanism. Hydra and Textiles Committee are currently engaged in an initiative to support these SMEs to make their next level progress by setting in place such a mechanism. The initial interaction with the SMEs indicates a figure of almost 74% looking for specific product and segment details to take decisions. There are about 13% from this group who have made their product decisions and are keen to conduct their Pre-Project Study to commence implementation. When these groups finally arrive at the final destination which is commercial operation, there may not be an Eco System to support them.

These two back drops are hence very critical to the success of SME entry into this sector.