The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI), the National apex body for the textiles & clothing industry across the nation, organised an interactive meeting with Ravi Capoor, Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India with the office-bearers of 48 textile Associations in South India representing the entire textile value chain. The office-bearers / representatives of other National apex bodies such as AEPC, TEXPROCIL, PDEXCIL, SRTEPC, AMFII also participated in the interactive meeting.
Around 200 industrialists representing the entire textile value chain from South India and members of National Committee for Textiles & Clothing (NCTC) attended the meeting. All these associations thanked the Prime Minister and the Union Minister for Textiles and Secretary (Textiles) for removing the anti-dumping duty levied on PTA. According to them, this initiative enables indigenous fiber and filament manufacturers to reduce the price considerably.
The Textile Secretary advised the textile industry to grab the opportunities by diversifying into polyester segment
to boost exports. He appreciated the initiatives taken by Tirupur and Coimbatore to implementzero liquid discharge to protect the environment, predominantly using non-conventional energy to avoid carbon food print, apart from complying various labour and other social statutes. He advised Tirupur Knitwear Cluster to brand its garments and products under sustainable programme that might fetch much larger margin globally and Government would extend all necessary support to promote the brand.
The Textile Secretary also indicated that the government would address all the structural issues in its new National Textile Policy that is likely to be announced in a couple of months. The policy will encourage development of 10 mega textile parks on over 1,000 acre of land closer to the ports, giving plug and play facilities including the necessary safeguard measures in the labour laws. Capoor also indicated addressing the power cost, credit cost and its availability; the government would also make efforts to expedite conclusion of FTAs with EU, UK and other countries to boost the exports.
T. Rajkumar stated that the Government has identified the textile industry as the thrust area and in real terms “Make in India” facilities without any imports right from fibre to finished goods, ensures inclusive growth by providing jobs to all skill levels especially the rural masses and women folks. He further stated that the Government would also announce a scheme to set up dedicated textile parks for technical textiles, textile machinery manufacturing with the state-of-the-art technology spares, accessories, parts to promote import substitution thereby reducing the capital cost substantially as India is currently depending on imported technology barring spinning sector. The government is also exploring the possibilities of setting up R & D centres with the state-of-the-art facilities for each segment of the textile industry.
