CABINET GIVES CLEARANCE FOR TECHNICAL TEXTILES MISSION

Focus: GS-III Indian Economy and Economic Development, Industry and Infrastructure

Why in news?

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the setting up of a National Technical Textiles Mission at an total outlay of ₹1,480 Crore.

The aim is to position the country as a global leader in technical textiles and increase the use of technical textiles in the domestic market.

Details

• The Mission will be implemented for four years from 2020-2021 and will have FOUR COMPONENTS, a release said.
• FIRST component will focus on research and development and innovation and the research will be at both, fibre level and application-based in geo, agro, medical, sports and mobile textiles and development of bio-degradable technical textiles.
  • Research activities will also focus on development of indigenous machinery and process equipment.
• SECOND component will be for promotion and development of market for technical textiles.
• THIRD component will focus on export promotion so that technical textile exports from the country reach from the ₹14,000 crore now to ₹20,000 crore by 2021-2022 and ensure 10% average growth every year till the Mission ends.
  • An export promotion council for technical textiles will be set up.
• FOURTH (last) component will be on education, training and skill development.
  • The Mission will promote technical education at higher engineering and technology levels related to technical textiles and its application areas.

Extra Information

• The Indian technical textiles segment is estimated at $16 billion which is approximately 6% of the $250 billion global technical textiles market.
• The penetration level of technical textiles in India varies between 5% and 10% against the level of 30% to 70% in developed countries.
• The Mission will aim at taking domestic market size to $40 billion to $50 billion by 2024.

Basic Information about textile Industry in India

• The domestic textiles and apparel industry contributes 2.3% to India’s GDP and accounts for 13% of industrial production, and 12% of the country’s export earnings.
• The textiles and apparel industry in India is the second-largest employer in the country providing employment to 45 million people.

Government Initiatives to Promote the Textile Industry

• The Indian government has come up with a number of export promotion policies for the textiles sector.
• It has also allowed 100 per cent FDI in the Indian textiles sector under the automatic route.

Initiatives taken by Government of India are:

1. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has revised rates for incentives under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) for two subsectors of Textiles Industry – Readymade garments and Made ups – from 2 per cent to 4 per cent.
2. As of August 2018, the Government of India has increased the basic custom duty to 20 per cent from 10 per cent on 501 textile products, to boost Make in India and indigenous production.
3. The Government of India announced a Special Package to boost exports by US$ 31 billion, create one crore job opportunity and attract investments worth Rs 80,000 crore (US$ 11.93 billion) during 2018-2020. As of August 2018, it generated additional investments worth Rs 25,345 crore (US$ 3.78 billion) and exports worth Rs 57.28 billion (US$ 854.42 million).
4. The Government of India has taken several measures including Amended Technology Up-gradation Fund Scheme (A-TUFS), scheme is estimated to create employment for 35 lakh people and enable investments worth Rs 95,000 crore (US$ 14.17 billion) by 2022.
5. Integrated Wool Development Programme (IWDP) approved by Government of India to provide support to the wool sector starting from wool rearer to end consumer which aims to enhance the quality and increase the production during 2017-18 and 2019-20.
6. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), Government of India has approved a new skill development scheme named ‘Scheme for Capacity Building in Textile Sector (SCBTS)’ with an outlay of Rs 1,300 crore (US$ 202.9 million) from 2017-18 to 2019-20. As of August 2019, 16 states have signed pacts with the Ministry of Textiles to partner with it for skilling about four lakh workers under the scheme.