The seminar on ‘Recent Development in the Textile Industry: The Road Ahead’ held on 31st May, 2018 at The Oberoi Grand, Kolkata has opened the door of opportunities for some and provide a relief to apparel body representatives and traders as their problems were listened carefully by the Union Textile minister, Smriti Irani and promised to look into the matter and resolve their issues soon.
With the Union Textile ministry identifying ‘technical textile’ as the sunrise sector, Smriti Irani said on Thursday that Bengal, which contributes to more than 5 percent of the national textile segment, can play a major role in the development of this sector.
“The Centre has an apparel package for the first time in the history of the country of up to Rs 6,000 crore, which is the largest ever sanction in the textile industry in this country. An outlay of Rs 690 crore has helped in setting up of 21 readymade garment manufacturing (RGM) units in the seven North-Eastern states at the end of last year and all of them have become fully functional,” Irani said at the session.
She referred to the Amended Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (ATUFS) for the textile and garment sector, introduced in December 2015, which had approved a total allocation of Rs 17,822 crore till 2022, to clear pending claims as well as rolling out the new scheme. She maintained that the textile sector is on the growth track, with a 5 percent growth and having a high potential in India.
Vishal Jhajharia, Senior Vice President, MCCI states, “West Bengal has the potential to emerge as a major textile center in the country. The State has a rich heritage of skilful workmanship and artistry in the Textile Industry. The region is well known also for its well-developed hosiery knitting and garment industry.” He also said that more than 2 million people are directly employed by the region’s textile industry and another half a million indirectly. If the size of the industry can be increased in the next 10 years, as per estimates, the employment could reach 10 million people.
Focusing on the jute industry in Bengal and the importance of diversification of jute products, Irani felt that the industry has failed to perform in the way it should have, as the output of raw materials was not fine enough for diversification. She added that certified jute seeds would be distributed to farmers through every Krishi Vignan Centre to enhance productivity and increasing their income, which in turn would bring in technological upgradation in jute farming.
Under “Project Texpro Bengal”, around 13 textile parks were launched which would provide industry land, infrastructure, single window clearance, environment compliant, infrastructure, power apart from a host of subsidies (capital, land, stamp duty, labor, power, etc). The project will establish the State as a leading destination of globally competitive value-added textiles for both domestic and international markets in the coming years.
Sanjay Jain, Chairman of MCCI and Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) thanking Union Textile Minister for being the part of the session said, ‘With the help of the ministry it is possible that the India will soon emerge as a global leader in textiles and Apparels and Bengal will soon become the biggest hub for hosiery knitting and garment Industry and will certainly create newer opportunities for the Textile Sector.’
The State Gov. has taken some concrete steps to come up with the roadmap for making Bengal a major hub for clothing and textiles in the coming 5 years and increasing its share of Indian Textiles to around 10 per cent, Jhajharia said while concluding his speech.
– Apparel and Textile News, Apparel Talk, Indian Apparel
