Overview

The Indian textile industry is one of the oldest and most significant industries in the country. It accounts for around 4 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), 14 per cent of industrial production and over 13 percent of the country's total export earnings. In fact, it is the largest foreign exchange earning sector in the country. Moreover, it provides employment to over 35 million people.

The Indian textile industry is estimated to be around US$ 52 billion and is likely to reach US$ 115 billion by 2012. The domestic market is likely to increase from US$ 34.6 billion to US$ 60 billion by 2012. It is expected that India's share of exports to the world would also increase from the current 4 percent to around 7 percent during this period.

The fundamental strength of this industry flows from its strong production base of wide range of fibres/ yarns from natural fibres like cotton, jute, silk and wool to synthetic /man-made fibres like polyester, viscose, nylon and acrylic. We can just track the strong multi-fibre strong base by highlighting the following important positions reckon by this industry across globe are:

• Cotton-Second largest cotton and cellulosic fibres producing country in the world.

• Silk-India is the second largest producer of silk and contributes about 18% to the total world raw silk production.

• Wool-India has 3rd largest sheep population in the world, having 6.15 crores sheep, producing 45 million kg of raw wool, and accounting for 3.1% of total world wool production. India ranks 6th amongst clean wool producer countries and 9th amongst greasy wool producers.

• Man-Made Fibres- the fifth largest in synthetic fibres/yarns.

• Jute-India is the largest producer and second largest exporter of the jute goods.

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Source: Ghallabhansali Group