Texprocil, the first Export Promotion Council set up in India in the year 1954, and responsible for promoting Cotton Textile exports from India held a function recently in Mumbai to release an Ernst Young Study report on ‘Textile Industry as a vehicle of job creation for inclusive growth.’ The event was attended by the leading industry heads in the textile and clothing industry.

R. K Dalmia, Chairman, Texprocil mentioned that there were 3 objectives in undertaking the study. Firstly, to map the top 20 textile products in demand in major importing countries in comparison to what India is supplying to these markets and thereby analyze reasons for mismatch in demand & supply, if any, and chalk out suitable corrective action to be taken up by the industry.

He also reiterated the importance of finalisation of FTAs with EU, Australia and Canada in addition to negotiation of concessional tariff with China to highlight the impact of business being lost to other competing countries owing to tariff disadvantage faced by the Indian suppliers.

Thirdly, he said that this study was done to clearly bring out the employment potential of the textile sector, especially in rural India by developing non-migratory models of manufacturing like the ‘hub & spoke’ model being popularised in countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia & Myanmar.

The study was done by conducting primary research in various production centres and also by one-to-one meetings with manufacturers and exporters of fabric and home textiles in small, medium and large scale sectors, he said.