|
Dr. S. Sudalaimuthu |
P.SenthilKumar |
The woollen textile and clothing industry is relatively small compared to the cotton and man made fibre based textiles and clothing industry, yet the woollen sector plays an important role by linking the rural economy with the manufacturing industry, represented by small, medium & large scale units. The product portfolio is equally divergent from textile intermediates to finished textiles, garments, knitwear, blankets, carpets, etc. with small presence in technical textiles. This industry caters to civil and defense requirements for warmer clothing. India is the 7th largest producer of raw wool in the world accounting for 1.8 % of the world production with about 4.2 % of the total sheep population. The woollen textiles industry is located in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh., Maharashtra and Gujarat. A few of the larger units are located in Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat and West Bengal. Around 40% of the woollen units are located in Punjab, 27% in Haryana, 10% in Rajasthan, while the rest of the States account for the remaining 23% of the units.
(The woollen textiles industry broadly falls under two Sectors:
I)Organized Sector
1. Composite Mills
2.Combing Units
3.Worsted and Non-Worsted Spinning Units,
4.Knitwear and Woven Garment Units. Machine
Made Carpet Manufacturing Units.
(II) Decentralized Sector
1.Hosiery and Knitting Units
2.Power looms Units
3.Hand Knotted Carpets, Druggets, and Namdahs units
4.Independent Dyeing and Process Houses.
There are about 718 woollen units in organized sector and a large number of units in Small Scale sector. Ludhiana alone accounts for 225-240 units in the decentralized hosiery and shawl sector. The installed capacity of the industry is about 6.04 lakh worsted Spindles, and 4.37 non-worsted spindles. Wool combing capacity is around 30 million kg. Whereas synthetic fiber combing capacity is 3.57 million kg. There are approximately 7228 power looms in this industry.
Status of Employment in the Sector
The industry has the potential to generate employment in far-flung and diverse regions and, at present, provides employment in the organized wool sector to about 12 lakh persons, with an additional 12 lakh persons associated in the sheep rearing and farming sector. Further, there are 3.2 lakh weavers in the carpet sector. In aggregate, the total employment is about 27 lakh people.
Consumption of Wool & Productivity
The production of fine apparel grade wool is not enough in the country hence a large quantity of wool from Australia, New Zealand, China, Middle East and other countries is being imported.
During the first four years of the Tenth Five Year Plan, the import of raw wool increased from 73.66 million kg in 2002-03 to 90.70 million kg in 2005-06 (Provisional).
Thus the import of raw wool has almost constantly been increasing & there has been even a shift from fine wool quality to low quality wool imports during the last Four years because of consumer preference for hand tufted carpets in US & Western markets.
About 70 percent of total production of carpet is now hand tufted. Raw wool is imported mainly for value addition. Most of the value-added products are exported.
The import of woollen rags and cotton rags etc, increase from 52.39 million kg in 2002-03 to 126.82 million kg (prov) in 2005-06. The worldwide consumption of wool has remained almost constant at about 15 lakh tones between 1960 and 2002. The share of the wool in worldwide consumption of all textile fibre was 10 % in 1960, which has then steadily decline to a little less than 3 % in 2002. The world average of wool productivity has been about 3.5 kg. / Sheep/ year while Indian average has been 0.8 kg/sheep/year.
WOOLLEN EXPORTS
The export of woollen items indicated an increasing trend during the first four year of the X Plan. It has increased from Rs.3597.31 crore in the year 2002-03 to Rs.4969.02 crore in the year 2005-06.The export figures for woollen (carpet and non-carpet) items for the last three years are given below:
In order to boost the export of textiles and garment, several concessions have been given on import duties on specified textiles and garment machinery including woollen machinery. The import duty for apparel grade raw wool has been fixed at 5%. In the Exim Policy 2002-07, the lowering of threshold for obtaining “Export House” status to Rs.5 crore for the Small Scale sector will encourage further development of centers of economic and export excellence such as Tirupur for hosiery and Ludhiana for woollen knitwear. The woven segment of readymade garments has been de-reserved from the SSI sector to encourage FDI inflow.
IMPORTS
The country is import dependent and there is no indigenous angle for fine apparel grade wool. The import of raw wool has increased from 73.66 million kg. in 2002-03 to 90.70 million kg. (Prov.) in 2005-06. Further, the import of woollen rags and their blends has also increased from 52.39 million kg. in 2002-03 to 126.82 million kg. in 2005-06 as shown below: -
Thus a large quantity of wool from Australia, New Zealand, China, Middle East and countries is being imported.
Xth PLAN OUTLAY
A total allocation of Rs. 40.00 crores has been allocated for the Woolen Sector in the 10TH Five Year Plan. At the end of the 9th Five Year Plan period, a Zero Based Budgeting exercise was undertaken in respect of the CWDB’s 12 Schemes, these were also administering in the 8th and 9th Plans for development of wool viz. (i) Integrated Sheep & Wool Development Project, (ii) Angora Rabbit/ Pashmina Development Programme under UNDP (CCF-I), (iii) Integrated Angora Rabbit Development Project, (iv) Machine Shearing-cum-Training Project, (v) Mini Wool Scouring Plant, (vi) Wool Testing Centre (vii) Industrial Service Centre, (viii) Weaving & Designing Training Centre, Kullu (H.P.) (ix) Market Intelligence Network, (x) Area based Project for Wool & Woollens Development, (xi) Human Resource Development Programme and (xii) Woollen Expo.
It has been decided to merge these schemes into 5 schemes in the 1st year of the 10th Plan (2002-03), and simultaneously, in discussion with the States, we have designed a large programme with specific targets, greater flexibility in implementation and greater emphasis on the marketing of wool. The Scheme has been approved as Integrated Wool Improvement Programme (IWIP), with a budget of Rs.35 Crore for the period 2003-04 to 2006-07. The IWIP has two main components i.e. Improvement of Wool Fibre and Quality Processing of Wool. It is being implemented as a fully funded Centrally Sponsored Scheme since July 2003. For the current year 2006-07, the Ministry has approved a sum of Rs.600 lakh to the CWDB. This allocation included a provision of Rs.500 lakh for Plan Schemes and Rs.100 lakh for Non-plan or Board’s Establishment expenses.
Organizational set-up in the Wool Sector
Right from the beginning the Ministry has adopted a three pronged strategy for the development of wool & woollen industry are – (i) increase the production of indigenous wool both qualitatively and quantitatively; (ii) research for the overall development of wool & woollen industry; and (iii) export promotion of wool & woollen products. These objectives are sought to be achieved through the following organizations: -
Central Wool Development Board, Jodhpur:
The Board with its headquarters at Jodhpur administers various schemes for development of wool & woollen products through State Government Departments/NGOs. In the year 2005-06, the Ministry has made a provision of Rs.5.00 crore under Plan Scheme and the Central Wool Development Board has utilized entire grant-in-aid released to them. Under Non-Plan a provision of Rs. 1.00 crore was made and out this approved however, the Board has spent only Rs.73.14 lakhs only during the year 2005-06.
The Board comprises 21 official members and 8 non-official members and reconstituted every two years. Since the inception of the Board, the Secretary (Textiles) had been nominated as exofficio Chairman of the Board. In view the importance of the wool sector both on the front of employment and foreign exchange earnings and to give a more focused attention to the wool sector, the Minister of Textiles assumed the Chairmanship of the Board. However, now Shri Sagar Rayka has been appointed as a full-time hairman of Central Wool Development Board. The Central Wool Development Board has been reconstituted on 26.9.2006 for a period of 2 years. At present there are 8 vacancies of non-official members.
Wool Research Association, Thane:
It is engaged in various activities necessary for the technology upgradation of the Indian Woollen industry, which includes research and development work, special training programme, workshops etc. The major projects with the WRA include identification of vegetable dyes, product development by blending wool with other fibers, improving spinning & weaving machines for ergonomics & productivity, effluent treatment of scouring and other pre-loom processing of wool etc. Wool Research Association at present is organized under the following five departments namely:-
- Quality Test House- ISO 9002 certified by BVQI and approved by UKAS Certification No. 81909 and well equipped with the equipments for testing of the fiscal properties from fibre to fabric
- Chemical Test House
- Textile Technology Department and Pilot Plan
- Computer Aided Textile Designing and Color Research Laboratory
- Eco-Testing Laboratory
COCLUSION
Concluding the article the Government has been implementing various projects and schemes like Integrated Wool Improvement Programme (IWIP) in the 10th Five Year Plan to increase indigenous wool production in the country, having components of Sheep & Wool Improvement Scheme (SWIS), Development of Speciality Fibers (Pashmina and Angora), and Quality Processing of Wool etc. These schemes, with a more focused approach, and some modifications, are intended to be continued during the 11th Five Year Plan. Moreover, an Insurance Scheme to cover Sheep mortality is also being proposed for the 11th Five Year Plan. In order to promote export of woolen products, Government has been implementing schemes of Market Development Assistance (MDA) and the Market Access Initiative (MAI) etc.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR’S
S. Sudalaimuthu
Lecturer
Department of commerce
Bharathiar University
Coimbatore 641046
Email: sm_vcas@yahoo.com
Field of Specializations: Accounting, Financial Management, Banking, E-Commerce and Computer subjects (C , Visual Basic, MIS) Achievements: (1) Actively engaged in guiding M.Com, M.Phil and PhD students, M.Com Projects guided: 42, M.Phil Projects guided: 17, currently guiding 6 PhD and 5 M.Phil students.(2) Seminar / Workshop organized in the College level: 33,State level: 2,National Level: 1(3) Seminar / Workshop participated: 42,(4) No of papers presented in the State level and National Level Seminar: 42,(5) No of Papers presented in the International Seminar: 11(6) No of papers published: 6,(7) Developed many programs in C and Visual Basic for various commerce applications,(8) Familiar in using Accounting Packages: Tally and EX-Next Generation,(9) Designed and introduced five job oriented certificate courses in Vidya Sagar College of Arts and Science, Udumalpet.,(10) Teaching Experience: U.G - 16 years, PG - 11 years.
P.Senthil Kumar
Research scholar
Department of commerce
Bharathiar University
Coimbatore 641046
E mail: senspv@gmail.com
P. Senthil Kumar did his M.Com (2006) in Department of Commerce Sree Saraswathi Thyakaraja Arts and Science College, Pollachi, Coimbatore. At present he is doing research program in the Department of Commerce, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore. His Presented 9 Seminar papers in various National and International conferences. Among this 2 international level conferences, 1international symposium and 6 national level Seminars.
To read more articles on Textile, Fashion, Apparel, Technology, Retail and General please visit www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-article
Comments