Textiles Ministry looking at five times increase in Technical Textiles export
Textiles Ministry has suggested public private participation in the use of government funds in research and development in technical textiles segment. Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Textiles, Food and Public Distribution, Consumer Affairs, Commerce & Industry, said the time has come to target five times increase in export of technical textiles in three years. He was speaking at Indian Technical Textile Association (ITTA) in a forum attended by the representatives of the ITTA.
Goyal said the Centre would support Production Linked Incentives (PLIs) for the textile sector in all those states that support development and offer affordable infrastructure like cheap land and power for textile manufacturing. He added that best standards in textile manufacturing should be aligned and that there shouldn’t be any difference in the quality of the textile intended for domestic and international consumers.
The technical textiles growth in India has acquired momentum in the past five years and its growing at the rate of 8 per cent per annum. The government aims to accelerate this growth to 15-20 per cent range during the next five years.
Goyal added that in the 250 Billion USD world market, India’s share is currently just 19 billion USD. India’s market size is 40 billion USD (8% share) hence it’s an aspiring player while USA, China, Japan and Europe are the biggest players. The government has in the meanwhile launched National Technical Textiles Mission in February last year. The mission has been launched with the aim to make India a vibrant, export-oriented and a self-reliant economy in the world.
The ministry aims to make India a major player in technology development and innovations, besides applications in the key areas like agriculture, railways, roads, hygiene, healthcare, water resources and personal protection with emphasis on skilled workforce and higher education.
The technology of the future Technical Textiles are the textiles engineered to give the output suitable for any specific applications. Natural fibres like silk, cotton and jute are the basic raw materials, however, man-made fibres are used in majority of the applications and these include carbon, metals, glass and polymers (Aramid, Nylon). metals. Technical textiles are the technology of future.
The technical textiles segment is divided into 12 sub-segments on the basis of their application areas. The applications of technical textiles are day by day widening with the arrival of new materials. The country has a major presence in technical textiles segment with 38% in Packaging Textiles, 12% in Geotechnical Textiles and 10% in Agricultural Textiles.
New inventions in smart textiles such as smart wear for health monitoring, 3D Weaving, ultra-high performing sportswear can bring new avenues that were unthinkable a couple of years back.
An association of small and medium segment of technical textiles manufactures, ITTA has 90% of its members with the annual turnover under 100 crore. Most of the ITTA members are engaged in protective garments, non-woven fabrics, agro-textiles, packaging technical textiles, conveyer belts and industrial filters.
The ministry engages with IITA in most of the programmes even though the large technical textiles manufacturers having more that 500 crore turnover like Century Yarn, Johnson & Johnson, Welspun, SRF, Garware, etc are not the members of IITA.
