Gujarat to get two centres of excellence for textiles

10 Feb '12

2 min read

Gujarat, the State that produces largest amount of cotton in India, will get two new centres of excellence dedicated to the State's textile industry.

The two centres will focus on entrepreneurship and research and development and will be set up by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) in Ahmedabad and Rajkot cities by 2013.

ASSOCHAM Chairperson Bhagyesh Soneji informed that they are looking forward to obtain approvals for the project in this fiscal, and are expecting to come up with the centres within a year.

While Ahmedabad houses about 250 big fabric processing houses, Rajkot enjoys the advantage of being located in the middle of a cotton producing region.

The ASSOCHAM Chairperson said Gujarat, which contributes 30 percent of the country's woven fabric and represents one-fourth of decentralized powerloom industry, needs to revamp and upgrade its textile and clothing industry.

ASSOCHAM believes that centres of excellence could help the textile industry to concentrate on technical textiles, a fast emerging segment of the textile industry.

Last year, ASSOCHAM signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Gujarat government to set up a centre of excellence dedicated to the State's textile industry.

Ms. Soneji informed that they intend to develop international links with countries like China, UK, Germany, Italy, Australia and Taiwan. Such linkages would prove helpful to domestic textile entrepreneurs to avail global textile technology and talent.

While unveiling a study titled “Textile industry in India-current status and the way forward”, ASSOCHAM Secretary General, DS Rawat, said textile enterprises should hugely invest in research and development activities to evolve new products, cut average production costs and to develop their raw material base.

The study discusses the need for India to make a transition from being a lower-end market to value-for-money market, particularly when the modern textile industry is transforming towards technical textiles.

According to the trade body, the technical textile industry is certain to achieve an 11 percent year-on-year growth to become a Rs. 740 billion industry from the current Rs. 500 billion. Technical textiles has less than 10 percent share in the Rs. 2,750 billion worth of Indian textile industry.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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