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Textile Ministry sets up a new COE in Coimbatore for industrial textiles

27 Jul '11
4 min read

Ministry of Textiles is committed to working closely with all the stakeholders by the setting up of four Centres of Excellences, one each on Non-Wovens, Sportetch, Indutech and Composites said Mr Sujit Gulati, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India during the inaugural address at the Conference on Technical Textiles with focus on Health & Infrastructure sectors organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at Coimbatore. He said out of the four COEs, three new Centres of Excellences have been designated, one at PSG College on Indutech at Coimbatore , DKTE College on Non-Wovens at Ichalkaranji and ATIRA on Composites at Ahmadabad which provides support for the domestic and export market development on technical textiles and support for business start ups particularly to the MSME sector.

He said as per David Rigby Associates the global market size of technical textiles was US $ 127 billion for the year 2010 and it is expected to reach US $ 127 billion by the year 2012-13 at an annual growth rate of 3.5%. He also quoted that as per Baseline survey, the market size of technical textiles in India is estimated at Rs.63,204 crore during the year 2010-11 and based on the past trend of growth, the sub group on technical textiles for XII Five Year Plan has projected the market size to touch Rs.1,60,000 Crores in the year 2016-17 with a growth rate of 20% annually. The sub group further has projected the market size of medical textiles at Rs.6,000 Crore by 2016-17 at a growth of 20% annually, he stated.

He also stated that the Ministry of Textiles is coordinating with all the other User Ministries especially Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Road Transport and Highways for Inter-Ministerial coordination for discussion on regulatory measures for the use of technical textiles. He said that this will enhance the usage of medical textiles and geotextiles in the country.

Mr A B Joshi, Textiles Commissioner in his keynote address briefed participants on the Technology Mission on Technical Textiles and urged the industry in the region especially from the textile business community and entrepreneurs to make use of the opportunities in the Technical Textile sector.

Innovation is a must in technical textiles if we need to compete globally said Mr Manikam Ramaswami, Past Chairman, CII Tamil Nadu & CMD, Loyal Textiles Mills Limited during his address. China has 40 COE's dedicated to Technical Textiles because of which China is performing extremely well in the global market even competing with the European market, he added. He said “Technical Textiles is extremely important in Tamil Nadu as there is huge percentage of students going beyond 10th standard having high aspiration in life, this would be an intellectually rewarding career option for the youth. He also mentioned that the biggest challenge which India is facing today is the levy of high import duty on raw materials. He urged the Government of India has to consider having zero import duty for the growth of technical textiles in India. He also suggested that the government should look at coming up with mandatory regulations for safety in industry by using technical textiles products and link safety procedures to Insurance for the safety of the industrial workers.

Lack of awareness among the investor community is one of the major bottlenecks which have prevented large scale participation of companies and entrepreneurs, especially from MSMEs to take part in the technical textile growth story said Mr T Kannan, Chairman, CII National Committee on Textiles and MD, Thiagarajar Mills Pvt Ltd during his special address at the conference. He mentioned that the Textile Industry in India is the second largest employment generator after agriculture and with the kind of strong industrial base in the textile industry, the Indian textile companies have huge potential to get into the Technical Textile sector.

Mr C R Swaminathan, Chief Executive, PSG Industrial Institute during his address added that the growth of technical textiles will not only bring in technological advantages in the country, but it will also help in generating huge employment opportunity.

Earlier welcoming the delegates to the conference, Mr Ravi Sam, Chairman, CII Coimbatore Zone praised the Government for supporting CII towards conducting the conference in Coimbatore. The conference was wellattattended by 170 delegates and speakers from all over the country.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)

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