NITRA organises seminar on flame retardant & protective textiles

12 Jun '09

6 min read

A one-day seminar on “Flame Retardant Home Textiles & Protective Clothing” was jointly organized by NITRA and IIT-D on 22nd May 2009 at PHD House, New Delhi. Mr Bhupendra Singh, IAS, Joint. Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India was the chief guest.

Seven papers on FR & protective clothing were presented by Technical Textile manufacturers, suppliers of chemicals and BIS. Seventy participants from textile and allied industries, prominent end users of protective clothing such as CISF, Air-Force, Airports Authority, CRPF, international testing laboratories, trade associations and academicians, researchers, students from textile institutes took part in the seminar.

Dr. R. C. Jain, Chairman, NITRA, while welcoming the participants informed that though India is the second biggest cotton growing and textile manufacturing country in the world, yet the area of technical textiles is lagging behind.

According to him, any form of clothing should be protective of five elements of nature, especially the fire; hence technical textiles require immediate attention. He emphasized that efforts should be made to bring in investment in technical textiles in spite of recessionary effects due to growing demand for these products.

He also opined that Sh. Bhupendra Singh is the competent person to handle issues related to technical textiles and is in the process of formulating policy to encourage this segment.

Dr. J. V. Rao, Director, NITRA informed that the objectives of creation of Centre of Excellence (CoE) is to provide infrastructure support at one place for the convenience of the manufacturers of identified segments of the technical textiles industry. Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India has sanctioned one time grant to NITRA and IIT-D, to set up the CoE (Protech) with NITRA as lead partner.

The CoE has to manage the recurring expenditure and therefore shall manage it on commercial basis. While elaborating, Dr. Rao informed that the CoE will offer multiple facilities for the industry such as testing and evaluation of products of Protech, facilitating national and international accreditation, developing Resource Centre with IT infrastructure, customized and regular training of core industry personnel, and creating awareness about technical textiles amongst entrepreneurs.

Sh. Bhupendra Singh, chief-guest, in his address said that the govt. had understood the potential of technical textiles ten years back and prepared a comprehensive report to find ways and means to support and promote this segment. He informed that Rs. 48 crore were set aside to create four CoE for Protech, Agrotech, Geotech and Meditech whilst the creation of some more CoE, engaging IITs and universities, is on the cards.

He also mentioned about the proposed Technology Mission for Technical Textiles referred by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in Tex-Summit 2007. While continuing, Sh. Singh opined that primarily testing and standardization of products are the areas the CoEs have to take care of. Shortage of raw materials and technical know-how is another area of concern as foreign firms are very secretive about sharing technical know-how on technical textiles.

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