Will the Indian textile industry be able to take offnow, or will it only be a dawdling progress?

During the past few years, market for technical textiles hasbeen sizzling at the global range. The industry is growing at a very fast pace,especially in the Asian region. In India, the potential of this segment isstill untapped. India has the capability to become a leader in the manufactureand trading of technical textiles with a potential to acquire 10% share in theglobal market. Despite the rosy hopes, the industry is foretelling, investmentsin India continue to remain a trickle.

Indian Technical textile sector:

Recent figures of the revenue generation of technicaltextiles industry amounts to Rs.260 billion. Industry analysts positivelyassert that the growth of the industry will thrive to reach around Rs.520billion in the next 3 to 4 years. Consumption of non-woven is expected to growfrom 100 gm to 250 gm by 2012 in tune with the increase in GDP.

Growth of technical textiles in India can be augmented withvarious programmes of national mission, and encouraging foreign directinvestments. The Government and Union Textile Ministry is showing interest inthis lucrative and fully unexplored sector. The Government of Gujarat state in India has announced special subsidies regarding the same. In the Industrial Policy-2009,the Government of Gujarat has announced 6% interest subsidy on plant andmachinery for technical textile. Adding to this, the Central Government is alsogiving 10 % credit-linked subsidy and 5% interest subsidy.

Besides this, special support programmes are available forinvestors through the Technology Upgradation Fund (TUF) scheme. This gives a5% cut in the basic customs duty on imported and non-woven technical textilemachinery.

To get a more precise idea about the industry happenings, &sec=article&uinfo=<%=server.URLEncode(2121)%>" target="_blank">Fibre2fashion spokewith Mr. Chandan Chatterjee, Director, iNDEXTb. He remarked that almost10 to 15 technical textile units are on starting stage, with some companiesfunctioning already. According to Mr Chatterjee, the total investments in thissub-sector are expected to touch Rs 12 billion in Gujarat alone.

He further added, "Center for Excellence in TechnicalTextiles is likely to be set up in Surat very soon for which details are beenworked out by the Government of Gujarat in collaboration with South GujaratChamber of Commerce and Industries (SGCCI). These units will manufacturemedical textiles, parachute textile, geo-textiles, laminated fabrics, fabricmaterial for bullet proof jackets and for applications in agriculture,automobile and packaging".

Industry experts further state that there have not been manyhappenings in the industry apart from South India. They have also identifiedfour sectors of the technical textile industry that require immediateattention. They are meditech, geotech, protech, and agrotech.

Constraints for the Industry:

• Almost 85-90% of the fibres used in the industry are synthetic, and specialty fibres which has to be only imported.
• There is lack of awareness among the entrepreneurs, and consumers regarding the market size, domestic and global scenario of the sector.
• Marketing is one of the main focus areas which need to be worked upon. Despite the fact that the Government is taking appropriate actions and coming up with new subsidies, and policy measures, still there is lack of results due to less focus on the marketing part.

With tremendous growth in manufacturing and retail sectors,and Government policies geared up, India is posed to have a double digit growthin this segment. Technical textile sector has numerous end use applicationswith various items of the industry developing gradually in the country. However,there is less awareness among the prospective entrepreneurs and consumers.

References:

1. &sec=article&uinfo=<%=server.URLEncode(2121)%>" target="_blank">http://www.expresstextile.com
2. &sec=article&uinfo=<%=server.URLEncode(2121)%>" target="_blank">http://www.financialexpress.com/
3. &sec=article&uinfo=<%=server.URLEncode(2121)%>" target="_blank">http://www.technotex.gov.in/