'Pour investments into technical textiles' – Ms Singh at Texcellence 09

17 Nov '09

6 min read

She said that the government had been more than partial to the sector, as the TUF scheme was in operation since the last nine years and subsidy totaling to over Rs 90 billion had already been paid out with Rs 30 billion disbursed in the last three months alone. Giving out more information, she said, investments under the scheme totaled to Rs 1,790 billion since inception and the latest disbursal was done within 72 hours of the proceeds being received from the government.

Giving out statistical data with regards to the investments made in various sub-sectors of the textile industry under the TUF scheme, she said nearly 50,000 embroidery machines had been installed in Surat and plain powerlooms were replaced with automatic looms in most of the weaving hubs of the country like Bhiwandi, Ichalkaranji and Surat.

She lamented over the fact that the per capita consumption of fibre stood at just 3 kg in India, while it was 20 kg in US and the world average stood at 7-8 kg, but added by saying that cotton technology mission had helped the country from being a net importer of cotton to a net exporter of cotton in a matter of few years.

She also advised the sector in to invest in a big way in the emerging sub-sector of technical textiles as there was more profitability considering that in production of traditional textiles, raw material cost accounted for 65 percent of all costs and value addition meant only 35 percent, while in technical textiles, raw material cost was only 35 percent and value addition was 65 percent and also counseled to take advantage by combining benefits of various schemes rolled out by the Central and State governments.

She concluded her address by saying that technical textile was growing at a compounded rate of 90 percent in India and encouraged the industry to do something out of the ordinary and at the same time assured of full support from the Ministry of Textiles.

Ms Panabaka Lakshmi, the Union Minister of State for Textiles was the last to address the delegates in the inaugural session. She also advised the textile sector to take advantage of the FTAs signed with different regions and informed the gathering that the FTA with the European Union was at an advanced stage of talks.

She also said that framing of the National Fibre Policy was under progress and that the first meeting for the same had already taken place and also informed that the government was augmenting further funds under TUFs and also informed about the trade promotion trips undertaken by the ministry to Switzerland, Turkey and Italy, in a bid to increase exports and invite investments in to the sector.

Speaking exclusively to Fibre2fashion on the sidelines of the conference Ms Shashi Singh advised the sector to go in for value addition on the lines of Surat which has invested heavily in the embroidery industry and also that new product categories must be produced in technical textiles to be able to compete with European manufacturers.

When asked about how the TUF scheme has helped the textile sector, she replied by saying that, most of the companies have invested in latest technologies which are also expensive, so they have no option but to produce value added products, otherwise the return on investments would not be sustainable.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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