Government promises help for textile sector
Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh has said that the government will concentrate on formulating new strategies to promote growth and competitiveness of the country's textile industry.
He made the speech at the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI), which also welcomed Shri Shankersinh Vaghela, Union Minister of Textiles, Shri Elangovan, Minister of State for Textiles and other industry representatives.
The government is focusing on three imperatives: a stable policy environment; modernisation and the building of global brands. Dr Singh reiterated that new growth areas such as technical textiles will be actively promoted and a technology mission on technical textiles will be launched to support growth in this area. Other important areas include skills development and employment generation.
"We have to regain that glory and once again become, as we once were, the world's best textile industry," said the Prime Minister.
Other positive news for the Indian textile sector includes the opening of new Apparel Training and Design Centres by the country's Apparel Export Promotion Council. There are currently 39 training centres in Faridabad, Jaipur, Ludhiana, Kanpur, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai, among other cities, and the council plans to open nearly 70 new training institutes by the end of the year.
Furthermore, 30 textile projects are currently underway in Gujarat. The estimated cost of these Scheme for Integrated Textile Park (SITP) projects is Rs28.93 billion, including government assistance of Rs10.55 billion ($260 million).
