While India has classified 207 products as technical textiles for import and export, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade under the ministry of commerce and industry is ready to expand the list if industrialists give a list of such products according to their importance or export/import potential, textiles secretary Raghvendra Singh said recently.

He was speaking at the inaugural session of the first ‘National Investors Conclave on Technical Textiles’ in Coimbatore organised by the Indian Technical Textile Association (ITTA), the Indian Texpreneurs Federation (ITF) and the South India Mills Association (SIMA).

One hundred and textile entrepreneurs from across Tamil Nadu attended the event, according to a press release from the organisers.

While the growth of technical textiles sector is spoken of enthusiastically and has been projected at ₹2 lakh crore by 2021, there needs to be a reality check about its growth, said Singh.

Singh urged industrialists to identify prototypes developed by centres of excellence in textiles and adapt them to the industry.

The centres of excellences in textile sector across the country, such as the South India Textile Research Association (SITRA) in Coimbatore, have come up with around 600 prototypes, Singh added.

ITTA chairman Sundararaman KS said more new entrepreneurs should join the field of technical textiles rather than established players expanding. (DS)