The textiles ministry has roped in the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) to address both immediate and medium term action plans for the industry in the post-COVID-19 for the textiles industry. Textiles minister Smriti Zubin Irani has constituted five Technological Task Forces led by various IITs for the entire textiles value chain.

IT Madras would lead the group on indigenous machine manufacturing and machine tools while the setting up of local labs and promoting local technology is to be coordinated by IIT Bombay. The taskforces were setup after Irani held discussions with Principal Scientific Adviser, scientists, technologists and academicians on technological and manufacturing interventions in post Covid-19 situations in the textiles sector.

Another task force will work on raw materials and waste product utilisation technology in IIT Delhi while boosting textiles MSMEs and large data analytics for traditional sectors would be the responsibility of IIT Kharagpur. IIT Kanpur, on the other hand, would focus on reorienting technology for weavers and handicraft artisans.

Similarly, IIT Bhubaneswar will take up pilot studies for post Covid-19 handloom and handicraft reorientation, data integration of artisans and weavers and technological interventions in Odisha.