Figure 1 delineates the growth in the nonwoven industry in the US and India as measured by the growth in per capita consumption. As is evident from Figure 1, the nascent Indian industry will grow steadily in the next two decades reaching the threshold level of 3 kilograms in 2030. Interestingly, at this level, Indian industry behaves differently from those of the US and Western Europe and starts growing exponentially providing enormous opportunity for the industry. Whereas, the US industry will grow only slowly at a rate of around 5% beyond the threshold level of per capita consumption of 3 kilograms.

Indian growth story will defy the well established growth theory in our industry. China will also behave similarly but at a different stage in the years to come. Therefore, where is sustained growth? It is definitely in India at an annual rate of 13% from now till 2050 and beyond.

Figure 2 shows the phenomenal growth of the Indian industry from the embryonic stage (2007) through its infancy (2010 2030) and then through the developed stage (2030 and beyond). Per capita income levels for 2005-2050 plotted against the nonwoven consumption indicates tremendous growth with a phase change in 2030 enabling exponential growth from this stage. These figures will be extremely valuable for the Indian and global industry to plan their activities for next few decades to come. The take home message here is Indias nonwoven and technical textile industry will grow twice as fast as the growth of the current developed markets during its growth phase. Although, Indias industry base is extremely small currently with an annual total production of 60,000 tonnes, the next two decades are set to change the nature of Indian technical textile industry and provide an ample growth opportunity of over 13% per annum.

Drivers for Growth in India

As briefed in the introduction, the growing middle class population and rise in income levels of half of Indias population are the major drivers for the growth of Indian nonwoven and technical textile industry. In addition, there is much interest in both the public (Government) and private sectors to look into opportunities beyond the conventional textile chain (i.e., fibre to fashion). This situation is quite a contrast to what is happening in the United States and the rest of the developed economies. Recent reports about the US textile funding for the FY2008 estimate that the funding will remain similar to that of FY2007 level with a major cut in the R&D spending for textiles which will not be a welcoming one by the US textile industry. So both from the perspectives of private and public sectors in India, time is ripe to invest in nonwoven and technical textile industry.