Textiles Sector on revival path says Thiru. Dayanidhi Maran

INVC Bureau
New Delhi. Thiru. Dayanidhi Maran, Union Minister of Textiles said that textiles sector has started showing sign of revival with increase in investment, production, employment and exports. The production of fibre, yarn and cloth have shown an positive growth during April to November 2009. The production of cloth increased by 10.8 percent, man-made fibre and yarn production grew by 21.3 & 11.8 percent, respectively, and the total spun yarn production increased by 5.1 percent during the period. Thiru. Maran was addressing the textiles industry at the conference organised by the FICCI on ‘Emerging global trends and the way forward for Indian Textiles Industry’, here today.

The second quarter of the current fiscal saw a strong revival in sales growth, and weaving companies posted a sales growth of 19.7 percent, spinning industry 8.9 percent, man-made Fibre industry 15.7 percent and readymade garments industry 14.2 percent, said the Minister. The Sector witnessed a favourable investment climate since last quarter of last fiscal and weaving companies announced 5 new projects with an investment of Rs. 144 crore while the spinning industry announced 20 new projects worth Rs. 257 crore, said the Minister. Thiru Maran said that the revivals in demand had led to an addition of 3.18 lakh employees during second quarter of the fiscal, this is in contrast to the displacement of 1.54 lakh employees in the previous quarter.

The Minister said that the India’s overall textiles exports (excluding garments) during April-June 2009 fell by 21.8 per cent, and the sign of revival were seen during the July 2009 with an increase of 2.92 per cent. The apparel export sector has also shown signs of revival after falling y-o-y for eight months in a row, the value of India’s apparel exports to the US grew in September 2009, said the Minister. Thiru. Maran said that 60% of Indian exports of textiles and over 70% of clothing are to USA and EU 27 markets, and there is an urgent need to broaden product mix and explore new markets, while maintaining and increasing Indian textiles and clothing (T&C) share in core markets through product innovation and diversification. If sustained efforts are made by the industry, the country can capture additional US$ 1.5 billion textile and clothing export in US market, which will also help to generate additional employment opportunities, said the Minister. Thiru. Maran said that initiative of his Ministry to pool the resources of all the Export Promotion Council to mount mega shows in non-traditional markets like Japan, Brazil, Argentina and South Africa has been a success and this endeavour will continue.

Thiru Maran said that Indian Textiles Industry particularly spinning sector has been the major beneficiary of Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS). This year, we had allocated Rs. 3,140 crore for TUFS and for the first time Rs. 2,546 crore of subsidy was released in a single tranche and the amount was credited to the bank accounts of beneficiaries in record time of three working days. The Minister said that the Finance Ministry has been approached to provide an additional Rs. 1,500 crore for TUFS during fiscal 2009-10. The Minister stressed that there is a need to have a re-look into the working of TUFS and the scheme should be orientated to facilitate induction of the state-of-the-art technologies in the Textiles Sector. The emphasis of the Scheme should be to technologically upgrade Powerloom Sector which caters to 80% of domestic demands and 60% to export markets.

The Textiles Minister urged the industry, particularly the conventional textiles sector, to make efforts to create more marketing and technical awareness on technical textiles products. This way, by the time the global economic situation takes an upturn, the Indian technical textiles sector will come into its own, said the Minister. Thiru. Maran said that as an example for the industry NTC is in the process of setting up a technical textiles unit in one of its mills at Coimbatore. The Minister also called upon the textiles industry to adopt energy efficient, environmentally sustainably practises and ensures compliance with International eco standard, if it had to compete and sustain itself in the global market. Thiru. Maran said that Indian Jute Industry had a great potential and there is an immediate need to diversify its products profile and move away from a regime of Government protection.

Speaking on the occasion Shri Ashok Chawla, Union Finance Secretary outlined the importance of textiles Sector in the national economy and stressed an urgent need for product upgradation to get better unit value realisation and capture niche markets. He said that momentum should be imparted to implementation of Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) and popularisation of diversified Jute products. He outlined that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the Textiles Sector can play a role of a catalyst for product upgradation, in capturing new markets and in adoption of new work processes. Smt. Rita Menon, Union Secretary Textiles gave an overview of the textiles sector and informed that textiles Sector is on a recovery part. She thanked the Ministry of Finance for providing necessary financial stimuli and support, in particularly for TUFS, which has been catalyst for induction of upgraded Technology in the textiles sector.

The representatives from the Confederation of Indian Textiles Industry, Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (TEXPROCIL), the Synthetic and Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council (SRTEPC) and the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) urged the Government to have a re-look at the National Textile Policy 2000 in view of changed textiles scenario, post quota regime, and also thanked the Minister of Textiles for constituting a working group on National Fibre Policy to redress the fibre imbalance in domestic textiles economy.