Textiles Industry To Reach Market Size of Rs 2 Lakh Crore By 2020-21

Ms Smriti Zubin Irani, Minister for Textiles said that with the notification of separate HS Codes for the 207 technical textiles items, the industry can grow to a market size of Rs 2 lakh crore by 2020-21.

Speaking at the National Conclave on Technical Textiles and curtain raiser of TECHNOTEX 2019 jointly organised by Ministry of Textiles and FICCI, Ms Irani said that the notification of the HS Codes for technical textiles was unprecedented and would provide the much-needed stimulus to growth.

The Minister also announced that an innovation centre with the support of government and industry would be set up in Delhi soon for the technical textiles sector.

Listing out the major steps taken by the Government of India for the sector, the Minister said that in the last three to four years over 22000 people have been trained under various government schemes. Technical textiles has huge employment potential as with every Rs 1 crore of the investment 70 jobs can be created.

Mr Raghavendra Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India said that the government was taking number of steps for the technical textiles sector and has been accorded the highest priority at the highest level. There are many more measures in the offing, such as giving weight to technical textiles in the government tenders, he said. The Ministry had also initiated the latest technical textiles baseline survey to estimate the size of the industry, he added.

Dr V K Saraswat, Member, NITI Aayog, said that standardisation of technical textiles products was important and notification of the HS Codes for these items was major step in that direction. He emphasised that there was a need to encourage indigenous manufacturing of technical textiles and also check the import of sub-standard items.

Mr Rashesh Shah, Immediate Past President, FICCI, said that the focus on technical textiles by Government of India complemented the  Prime Minister's vision of New India where the focus is on development of next generation infrastructure.

Mr Nikhile Meswani, Executive Director, Reliance Industries Ltd.,  said that globally technical textiles was a fast growing segment increasing at the rate of 6% which is double the growth of polyester. It had the potential to achieve a size of US $ 34 billion in next few years in India and also achieve a growth of 20% per annum.

Ms Dipali Goenka, CEO & Joint MD, Welspun India Ltd., highlighted the potential of technical textiles in India. India continues to be a bright spot in the world, estimated to become  the third largest economy by 2030 and can leverage its strength in fibres and yarns for the growth of technical textiles sector.

The conclave witnessed the participation of over 200 industry and government delegates from across the segments of technical textiles.