TUFS to spur investments in technical textiles - Dr. J.N. Singh

11 Oct '08

3 min read

Speaking at the Seminar on 'Agro textiles : Emerging Opportunities” organized by Office of the Textile Commissioner, SASMIRA in association with FICCI in the city today, Dr. J.N. Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, Govt. Of India, said “The Textile Up gradation Fund Scheme is a great boon to the technical textile sector as it offers about 25-30% by way of subsidies like upfront 10% capital subsidy for new projects involving new machinery in technical textiles in addition to normal capital subsidy and additional 5% subsidy on the loans. This, by itself, should be good enough reason for investors to increase investments in this sector”.

Referring to the concept of establishing Technical Parks, he said that there was an overwhelming demand from the entrepreneurs in the textile sector, to set up Textile Parks exclusively for Technical Textiles in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Dr. Singh informed that the government was looking at the proposal and expressed the hope that such a move would help generate investments to the extent of Rs.500 – 600 crores in Agro textiles.

In order to build R&D infrastructure and knowledge base, SASMIRA, SITRA, BITRA, and NITRA have been designated as Centre of Excellence for promotion of Agrotech, Meditech, Geotech, and Protech respectively. Dr. Singh said that Rs.11 Crores earmarked for each centre for this purpose was inadequate, when compared to the amounts being allocated for R&D in European countries.

Shri A.B. Joshi, Textile Commissioner, Office of the Textile Commissioner, Govt. of India, announced that the government has selected ICRA, a Management Consultant, to carry out a survey and come out with a comprehensive data base on all segments and aspects of Technical Textiles which would be made available by the month end.

He made a fervent plea to the industry to take advantage of the excellent state-of-the-art facilities offered by the Centre of Excellence for technical textiles set up in the country.

Apprehending that the next World War would probably be on account of water, a commodity without which survival of vegetation and life would be difficult, Shri Maganlal H.Doshi, President, SASMIRA, expressed his strong belief that Agro textiles with super absorbent Polymers could create a new era of agriculture.

Mr. Doshi further assured that SASMIRA, which had been designated as Centre of Excellence by the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India with Man-Made Textile Research Association, Surat, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari and Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, would endeavour to become a world class leading service driven, research based international technical textile association fully equipped to serve the technical textile industry in general and agriculture in particular.

He further said that a state-of-the art infrastructure of testing and certification, demonstration and training, and information centre would be set up to support the entrepreneur's needs.

Shri U.K. Gangopadhyay, Director, SASMIRA and Dr. Vaijayanti Pandit, Director, FICCI-WRC saw a huge potential for the consumption of agro textiles in India, China, Brazil which are growing at a CAGR of over 7%. The market size of the sector has grown from Rs.261 crore in 2001-'02 to Rs.464.70 crore in 2007-08, they pointed out.

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry

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