It will be puzzling to the readers, why on earth I am using the word tango and in what sense? A brief introduction on tango will make sense and its relevance to the technical textiles industry in India. Tango is an Argentinean dance, which has secured its right and prominent place in the western ballroom dancing. It takes two to tango. It needs flexibility and harmony to make it elegant. This is what the Indian textile industry should do. It should be flexible and create serious interest in unconventional textiles and there needs to be harmony between the leader, the conventional textiles sector and the follower, the unconventional textile sector. This is "tango". The word tango used metaphorically refers to growing or following a lead, which is a definite need for the Indian technical textiles industry.

Why talk about technical textiles in a recession?

The answer is in a recent article published in The Wall Street Journal. An article "H&M bets quietly on a textiles line" quipped about the less fanfare diversification of the Swedish fashion giant Hennes & Mauritz to fashion textiles. H&M not sure on how the retail market will buy into the expansion unveiled its diversification with a great caution. What does this reveal? Even big names in the industry are not sure of commodity and consumer oriented markets in these difficult times. This H&M incident in a way highlights certain aspects to the export oriented Indian textile industry. The import volumes of commodity textiles in the US and Europe will not be as they were in early 2000s. The US and European textile chains are themselves looking into diversification to stay afloat. These circumstances reiterate our early recommendation that the Indian textiles industry should do two things immediately: 1) look for ways to expand laterally and 2) invest in those segments of the industry that can cater to both foreign and domestic markets. The answer is "value-added" textiles industry. Value-addition can be in commodity and non-commodity sectors and across the entire fiber to fashion supply chain.

State of the unconventional textiles industry in India

The unconventional textiles industry consists of woven, knitted, non-woven and composite sectors. Technical textiles segment of the textile industry in India is highly fragmented, in some sense highly protective and very embryonic. The woven and non-woven sectors are ahead of knitted and composite sectors with regard to their contribution to the technical textiles sector in India. Knitting segment in heavily export oriented apparel sector, which has contributed enormously to the accumulation of foreign exchange and the growth of the Indian manufacturing industry. Time is ripe for this industry to look beyond commodity apparels. The knitting sector as a whole is a streamlined industry with enough political clout, which should enable diversification fairly easier. With existing infrastructural resources, attempt should be made to venture into value-added knitting. Existing resources can be tweaked or improvised to develop composite performs, spacer fabrics, etc. These can fetch new markets such as defense textiles, composite materials, outdoor and performance textiles. With regard to the woven sector, sizable activity is already taking place in the technical textiles playing field such as developing coated fabrics, canvas, tent fabrics, tarpaulins, tire cord fabrics, etc. Nonwovens is the new kid in the block that is making a decent noise in India recently. In the recent past five years, interests to know about the technology and invest in non-woven technologies have grown exponentially. In this aspect, Lubbock, USA based Texas Tech University since 2004 has been providing an international platform in India for industry, academia and governments from different parts of the world to talk about technical textiles. Government of India has followed suit and has been conducting several training workshops in collaborations with Textile Research Associations and international associations such as the Cary, USA based Association of the Non-woven Fabrics Industry, INDA and Brussels based European Disposables and Nonwovens Association. The real value of the Indian technical textiles industry is nebulous. More recently, the Office of the Textile Commissioner had contracted ICRA Management Consultancy to have an idea of the current market size and growth opportunities. This report is available for the public through the Textile Commissioner's office. However, as a ballpark, the Indian non-woven industry is worth at 100,000 tonnes of roll goods output per year, which can be equated to consumption. On other hand, China's output is one million tonnes or even more, and is 15 years ahead of India in this sector. This sector is also organized in China with a number of associations representing different processes and products such as the China Nonwovens and Industrial Textiles Association.