After decades of policy bias toward cotton-based textile products, the government of India recently made concerted efforts to boost manufacturing of technical textile items through a Rs 10,683 crore production linked incentive scheme. Under this, incentives will be provided for five years for incremental production in 40 man-made-fibre (MMF) garments, 14 MMF-based fabrics and 10 technical textile segments.
Speaking to representatives of the Indian Technical Textile Association in Delhi, Indian Minister for Commerce Goyal highlighted that the technical textiles segment has gained momentum in the past 5 years and is currently growing at 8% per annum. “Our aim is to hasten this annual growth to 15-20 percent range during next 5 years,” Goyal said. At present, the global market for technical textiles is as large as $250 billion, while India’s share in it is just $19 Billion.
A leg-up to technical textiles is going to boost overall exports of textiles and garments. Already, the government has set an “aspirational” target of $100 billion for textiles and garment exports over the next five years. Goyal had earlier called on the industry to take advantage of a global market shift where China is pruning its market share in the labour-intensive segment.
