Indian FM boosts funding for wool development by 50% in Interim Budget

The Indian government has announced a significant boost in funding for the Integrated Wool Development Programme, with a rise of approximately 50 per cent. This development comes as finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Interim Budget for fiscal 2024-25, ahead of the upcoming general election scheduled for April-May 2024.

The finance minister aims to increase the budget allocation to ₹20 crore, a notable increase from the revised budget allocation of ₹13.50 crore for the ongoing fiscal. It's worth noting that initially, the government had set aside ₹27.11 crore in the budget proposal for fiscal 2023-24. However, this figure was later revised down to ₹13.50 crore. In the previous fiscal, 2022-23, the government had allocated just ₹6.38 crore, but this amount experienced a substantial fourfold increase to ₹27.11 crore for the subsequent fiscal year, 2023-24.

Under the Integrated Wool Development Programme, the government provides support to the wool industry and wool growers to qualitatively upgrade products and technology. This includes providing wool processing facilities such as scouring, carbonising, carding, dyeing, spinning, knitting, and modernising existing machinery and plants.

The programme also aims to increase the production of Pashmina wool in the Ladakh region, providing remunerative returns to its wool growers and ensuring social security for them.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)