Introduction

Economy, in particular the losses of manufacturing jobs occupy the centre stage in the Presidential election campaigns in the US these days. This has been a dramatic shift from other issues that were considered priority six months back. Some economic pundits are predicting recession in 2008 in the United States. However, this situation is quite a contrast 10,000 miles away - India. India is rising and moving ahead with opportunities in every sector. For the past four years, Indias GDP has grown over 8%. The growth in 2007 reached as high as 9.4% and is predicted to be in between 8-9% in 2008. The Indian middle class population is over 300 million which is set to spearhead the growth of the nonwoven and technical textile industry. According to Goldman Sachs, Indias economy will exceed the economy of Europe and Japan by 2030 and that of the US by 2045. Such a growth is possible because of the increase in household incomes and the predicted growth in agriculture, manufacturing and service sectors. The consumer spending level is growing over 5% per annum which has resulted in the ongoing growth of organized retail sectors. Indias population of 1.1 billion of which one-third being middle income group, plays an important role with the growth of Indias economy. India has roughly one hundred million people who are less than 25 years in age, out of which approximately 25 million are highly educated and this number is still growing. The economy gets a boost due to the growing middle class, young and educated population. These are vital factors for the growth of nonwoven and technical textile industry in India.

The 11^th five year plan of the Government of India (April 2007- March 2012) calls for an all inclusive growth which is expected to reach double digits by the end of the fiscal year 2012. This clearly emphasizes the growth needed in agriculture and manufacturing sectors, as the IT and service sectors have done extremely well in recent years. Taking this mandate of the National Planning Council into consideration, the Ministry of Textiles of India has taken nonwoven and technical textile sector as an important thrust area for support and growth.

Several positive schemes at the central government level have been implemented to support the growth of the nonwoven and technical textile industry in India. A major support scheme has been the launching of the National Technology Mission for Technical Textiles by the Honorable Prime Minister of India, which will be implemented during the 11^th five year plan to promote the development of the technical textile industry base in India with a budget of US$ 170 million. This technology mission is in addition to the inclusion of technical textiles sector in the Technology Upgradation Fund scheme. These supportive schemes from the Government of India as well as the growth in the middle class population are expected to change the nature of the technical textile industry in the next five to ten years. This fits with the goal of India Inc. and the vision of the Ex-President of India, Dr. Abdul Kalam to enable India to be an industrialized and developed nation by 2020.