By: Shramana Ganguly Mehta, Ahmedabad

It's not just branded apparel that is driving the growth of Indias textile sector. As the Indian consumer drapes up her home with exquisite upholstery,introduces baby diapers and tea bags to the family and drives around in four-wheelers,it is pushing a new category of speciality textile in the subcontinent. Growingat a phenomenal 11%-12% year on year, the consumption of technical textile orfunctional textiles in India will swell from current Rs.37, 565 crore to Rs.64,207 crore by 2012-13.

A recently concluded baseline survey of the technical textile industry in Indiato assess the demand-supply scenario undertaken by ICRA Management ConsultancyServices (IMaCS) at the behest of Textile Commissioner points out that protech(for personal and property protection) is expected to achieve the highestgrowth with 11-12% year on year growth while packtech (for packaging) with a37% share in domestic consumption, will steer volumes of the entire category inthe next three years. "Protech, Oekotech, Sportech and Packtech have themaximum growth potential while packtech and clothtech, mobiltech and hometechbeing the largest segments, will be the main drivers of growth," the draftreport states. The report is likely to be published within a month.

Pegged at Rs.14, 067 crore, packtech is slated to grow at the rate of 13% yearon year to reach a size of Rs.25, 913 crore by 2012-13. Protech on the otherhand, though stands at Rs.1, 387 crore, is expected to increase to almost Rs.2,386 crore.

Significantly, as Indians explore the world of sports and adventure, sportech(shoes, sports equipment, flying and sailing sports, textiles for adventuresports) which has a share of around 7% currently, will see an above average potentialof 15% year on year growth to zoom to Rs.5,645 crore in three years. Likewise,as the sense of environmental protection dawns upon Indians, Oekotech (textilesfor floor sealing, erosion protection, air cleaning, water cleaning, productextraction, domestic water sewerage plants), the share of this category willincrease from current Rs.82 crore to Rs.160 crore by 2012-13.

Written by Shramana Ganguly Mehta, Ahmedabad

Originally published in "The EconomicTimes" dated January 17, 2009: Bangalore