By Our Special Correspondent | MUMBAI, MAY 12
Ms. Darshana Jardosh, Minister of State for Textiles, today exhorted the industry leaders to transition from the cotton dominated textile supply chain to the man-made fibre supply chain.
Contrary to the global trend, Indian fibre consumption is skewed towards cotton. In view of this higher dependency on cotton, it has now become imperative for India to focus on man-made textiles along with cotton, opined Ms. Jardosh during the inauguration ceremony of Gartex-Texprocess Expo organised by Messe Frankfurt India and MEX Exhibitions in city.
Replying to a query of this correspondent on what steps the Indian Textile Ministry was taking to address the problems of cotton production and productivity in the country, Ms. Jardosh informed that the ministry was in talks with the cotton research institutes, cotton scientists and agriculture ministry to improve the production, productivity, quality, marketing infrastructure and ginning capabilities.
Plans are on the anvil to renew the Technology Mission on Cotton (TMC), she said and added the government was working towards improving seed technology, increasing yield, adopting global best practices to produce clean and high-quality cotton to improve the farmers’ income and enhance the global competitiveness of the Indian textile industry.
Dwelling upon the export scenario, Ms. Jardosh informed that India’s textile and apparel sector registered the highest ever growth of 40.55% in its exports and reached USD 43.44 Billion in FY 2021-22 compared to USD 30.90 Billion in FY 2020-21. This upward trend is projected to continue in the current fiscal year, she added.
The minister noted that India’s textile and clothing export competitiveness is quite evident as we stand second, only behind China. But unlike China we do not have in-house manufacturing of textile machineries. Most of the machineries are being imported. And that’s where our industry needs to step up, Ms. Jardosh emphasised.
She informed that her ministry was currently formulating a scheme for incentivising manufacturing of textiles machinery in India. The approach is to incentivise local innovation and at the same time invite eminent manufacturers to set up ventures locally, she disclosed.
Briefing the industry on the government schemes, Ms. Jardosh informed that the Government has approved setting up of 7 Pradhan Mantri Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel (MITRA) Parks with a total outlay of Rs. 4445 Crores in a period of 5 years. These parks would be equipped with world-class Industrial infrastructure and cutting age technology.
The MITRA Park will offer the opportunity to create an Integrated Textiles Value Chain right from spinning, weaving, processing/dyeing and printing to garment manufacturing etc. at one location, she said. The Minister also spoke about the positive impact of the recent cabinet nod for PLI Scheme for Man Made Fabric (MMF) segment and Technical Textiles with an outlay of Rs. 10,683 Crore. “67 players came forward and 61 have already got approvals,” she informed. (Source: Tecoya Trend)