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‘India aims to raise exports of technical textiles from $2 bn to $10 bn in 3 years’: Goyal
Technical textiles are engineered textile products for specific applications using basic raw materials such as jute, silk and cotton, et cetera
Union commerce and textiles minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said the time has come to target a five times increase in export of technical textiles to $10 billion in three years, an official statement said.
Production-link incentives (PLIs) for the textile sector will help the states in offering affordable infrastructure for textile manufacturing such as cheap land and power, he said while speaking to representatives of the Indian Technical Textile Association (ITTA) in Delhi on Friday.
The Cabinet in September approved a PLI scheme worth ₹10,683 for domestic technical textiles firms, and manufacturers of fabrics and apparel in the man-made fibre segment provided they make a specific investment in greenfield projects and achieve stipulated turnover.
Technical textiles are engineered textile products for specific applications using basic raw materials such as jute, silk and cotton, polymers, carbon, glass, and metals. Technical textiles are the technology of the future.
“We should align [our units] with best standards in textile manufacturing. There should be no difference in the quality of textile meant for international and domestic consumers,” the statement quoting Goyal said.
The minister suggested the public-private participation (PPP) model in the research and development of technical textiles. The technical textile in India has gained momentum in the last five years and it is currently growing at an 8% per annum rate, the statement said. India’s target is to hasten this growth to a 15-20% range in the next five years. The government’s National Technical Textiles Mission, launched in February 2020, also aims to boost India’s textile sector.
“Our aim is to transform India into a major player in innovations, technology development, applications in key areas (agriculture, roads and railways, water resources, hygiene and healthcare, personal protection) with emphasis on higher education and skilled workforce,” Goyal said.
Due to policy efforts, the technical textile trade balance that was negative ( ₹2,788 crore in 2018-19 and ₹1,366 crore in 2019-20), turned positive with ₹1,767 crore in 2020-21, he said. During the year 2020-21, India’s major share of exports is in PPE kits, N-95 masks and surgical masks.
Talking about the policy efforts to promote technical textiles, the minister informed that 92 items have been made mandatory for use by government organisations covering agriculture, highways, railways, water resources, medical applications.
Goyal said the Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) has issued standards for 377 items and another 100 are in the pipeline.
Based on their area of applications, technical textiles in India are divided into 12 categories, including packaging textiles (Packtech) with 38% share, geotechnical textiles (Geo-tech) 10%, agricultural textiles (Agrotech) 12%.
