Interviews
Increase in budget of TRA's will help textile sector – Director, NITRA
31 Jul '09
2 min read
According to sources from the Union Textile Ministry, the Ministry is mulling to increase its funding to the Textile Research Associations from this year. This is expected to be raised from Rs 2 Crore per annum to Rs 10 Crore per annum.
This would bring benefits in the form of more research related activities like improving the quality of fibres, yarns and fabrics. Fibre2fashion spoke to Dr JV Rao, Director at Northern India Textile Research Association.
He said, “Yes, we understand that for the current financial year the R&D budget has been increased from Rs.2 crores to 10 crores, but we are awaiting official confirmation and the increase in R&D budget does definitely benefit the industry”.
“However the sanctioned budget has to be distributed to all segments of textile and clothing industries which includes the complete range of textile fibres starting from natural fibres like jute and cotton to most advanced new generation, high performance textile fibres”, he added by saying.
He continued by saying, “If an appreciable/tangible/significant benefit has to be derived from the R&D then the budget allocated is insignificant and the sanctioned budget has to be allocated to all 8 TRAs. No doubt, Ministry of Textiles did its part of supporting the industry, especially in the emerging areas such as establishing centres of excellence in technical textiles.
'However, I as a researcher am of the opinion that there should be substantial financial support to carry out applied research which only textile research associations do and the industry should also support textile research associations in terms of funding TRA projects and extend their infrastructure facilities in developing new type of products and procedures”.
To a question as to whether Indian research was at par with international standards he replied in the negative and explained by saying, “No, in my opinion we are yet to reach to a level which can be claimed as of international standard and to reach such a stage, suitable mechanism has to be developed to bridge the gap between academic institutes, R&D and the industry”.
“No doubt, there are few textile and allied institutions which have substantial in-house R&D budget and they are doing extremely well, but as you may be aware their R&D findings are not available in the public domain”, he concluded by saying.
This would bring benefits in the form of more research related activities like improving the quality of fibres, yarns and fabrics. Fibre2fashion spoke to Dr JV Rao, Director at Northern India Textile Research Association.
He said, “Yes, we understand that for the current financial year the R&D budget has been increased from Rs.2 crores to 10 crores, but we are awaiting official confirmation and the increase in R&D budget does definitely benefit the industry”.
“However the sanctioned budget has to be distributed to all segments of textile and clothing industries which includes the complete range of textile fibres starting from natural fibres like jute and cotton to most advanced new generation, high performance textile fibres”, he added by saying.
He continued by saying, “If an appreciable/tangible/significant benefit has to be derived from the R&D then the budget allocated is insignificant and the sanctioned budget has to be allocated to all 8 TRAs. No doubt, Ministry of Textiles did its part of supporting the industry, especially in the emerging areas such as establishing centres of excellence in technical textiles.
'However, I as a researcher am of the opinion that there should be substantial financial support to carry out applied research which only textile research associations do and the industry should also support textile research associations in terms of funding TRA projects and extend their infrastructure facilities in developing new type of products and procedures”.
To a question as to whether Indian research was at par with international standards he replied in the negative and explained by saying, “No, in my opinion we are yet to reach to a level which can be claimed as of international standard and to reach such a stage, suitable mechanism has to be developed to bridge the gap between academic institutes, R&D and the industry”.
“No doubt, there are few textile and allied institutions which have substantial in-house R&D budget and they are doing extremely well, but as you may be aware their R&D findings are not available in the public domain”, he concluded by saying.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
Popular News
Leave your Comments
Editor’s Pick
Esteemed Clients
-Ltd..jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Thermore (Far East) Ltd.")
.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited (TSllC Ltd)")
.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Taiwan Textile Federation (TTF)")
