The government is evolving a consensus for mandatory use of specific technical textile products and is setting up an Inter-Ministerial Committee for examining the feasibility of a regulatory framework in this regard to ensure the safety and well-being of human life.
It is also facilitating the formation of Development Council for Technical Textiles comprising representatives of manufacturers, raw material suppliers, academic institutes and research associations to identify the problems plaguing the industry and suggest remedial measures.
These decisions were announced today by the Mr. Shankersinh Vaghela, Union Minister of Textiles and Mr. A K Singh, Secretary Ministry of Textiles, at the FICCI Conference of 'India Technical Textiles Industry' – Stimulating Demand and Promoting Development.
Inaugurating the day-long conference, Mr. Vaghela said: “In order to provide infrastructure support at one place for thrust areas of technical textiles, the government is proposing to set up four Centres of Excellence.
These centers would be equipped with internationally accredited testing labs, training facilities for trainers and technicians from the industry, IT-enabled information centre and other requisite support to the technical textile entrepreneurs.”
The four Centres of Excellence would be ready within six to seven months, the Minister said, adding that these centers are Bombay Textile Research Association (BTRA) in association with IIT, Mumbai for geotech; Silk & Art Silk Manufacturing Industry Research Association (SASMIRA) for agrotech; Northern India Textile Research Association (NITRA) for protech and Southern India Textile Research Association (SITRA) for meditech, both in association with IIT, Delhi.