Investment in T&G industry to touch Rs 1,506 bn by 2012

23 Dec '08

6 min read

Shri Shankersinh Vaghela, Union Minister of Textiles said that the biggest achievement of the UPA Government was to turnaround the Indian Textiles from Sunset to Sunrise sector. He said this while interaction with the media on December 23, 2008.

The rationalization of fiscal duties undertaken during the last four years has also provided a level playing field in all segments of the industry, resulting in the holistic growth of the industry. The Minister said that the textiles sector has witnessed a spurt in investment during the last four years and the investments between 2004-08 were Rs. 1,08,531 crore and they are expected to touch Rs. 1,50,600 crore by 2012. This enhanced investment will generate 17.37 million jobs by 2012.

The UPA government recognised technological obsolescence as the main impediment to the growth of the textiles industry. The government gave a new impetus to the implementation of the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS), which ensures the availability of bank finances, at rates comparable to global rates, to modernise production facilities.All segments of the textiles industry are getting benefits under the scheme

The scheme achieved momentum as a result of tremendous efforts put in by both the UPA Government and the industry, said Vaghela. The popularity of the scheme can be assessed from the fact that it was to come to an end in March 2007, but the industry was persistent with its demand that the scheme be extended till 2012. I personally took up the matter with the PMO and the Ministry of Finance and got it extended till 2012, said Minister.

The Minister informed that Indian Textiles Industry is at a cross-road. The merchandise export, particularly textiles, witnessed only a gradual growth during a major part of 2007-08. Besides historical factors, the main contributory factors were the appreciation of the Indian rupee against the dollar and the slowdown of the US economy. The government took steps in the short, medium, and long terms to provide a fillip to the textiles industry, including exports. The current year has seen a sharp improvement in Indian merchandise exports, and growth has surged much faster than expected, putting an end to the pessimism that reigned in the first half of the last fiscal.

The depreciation of the rupee is one of the reasons why exports have picked up. However, we are aware of the adverse impact of economic down turn in USA, EU and other developed countries. This is very challenging situation, and export targets appears to be under pressure. The International market conditions are beyond the control of the Government, and the Government have initiated measures to mitigate the problems being faced by the Industry, said Vaghela.

Technical textiles are an emerging industry, with a huge potential to attract investment and the global market size of technical textiles is expected to jump to US $ 127 billion by 2010, said Minister. The Indian market size of technical textiles is expected to jump to US$ 12.46 billion by 2010. The government has designed Centres of Excellence (CoE), for agrotech, buildtech, meditech and geotech group of technical textiles, at an outlay of Rs 44 crore. We will shortly launch Rs 600 crore Technology Mission on Technical Textiles and create a Development Council for Technical Textiles, said Vaghela.

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