Technical textiles to be strong pillar of India's growth: Piyush Goyal at Technotex 2023

The Minister said that given the vast range of usage for technical textiles, this is the area of the future.

The Union Minister for Textiles, Commerce and Industry, and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution' Piyush Goyal has said that it is time for the Indian textile industry to focus on scale, quality, speed and higher volume. He was addressing the Keynote Session of ‘Technotex 2023: Envisioning Indian Technical Textiles @2047', the 10th edition of the International Exhibition and Conference on Technical Textiles, at Bombay Exhibition Centre in Goregaon, Mumbai today.

“Time to Capture World Markets, with Growth, Scale, Speed and Volume”

The Minister said that this is the right time to capture world markets. “It is time we started looking at scale and more composite plants, to use more modern technology, thereby also enabling us to meet the needs of large corporate buyers across the world. Many international companies tell me that they are not able to find high-quality high volume suppliers, even though many would prefer to have a relationship with India and work with a democracy with transparent rule-based systems. In this context, it is time we look at growth, scale and speed. Today is the right time to capture world markets. Our Free Trade Agreements with UAE and Australia came into force last year. We are also working on agreements with other countries including those of the European Union. The direction is to become an international player; no country has become a developed nation without playing an integral role in the global supply chain. We have to integrate our economy with those of the developed countries to reach our potential and the desire of our young population.”

The Minister said that given the vast range of usage for technical textiles, this is the area of the future. “I appeal to startups as well as large corporations to consider expanding rapidly in the technical textiles field. Our share of the global market is about 2.5%; I believe that the Indian market will grow faster than 12% if we are able to showcase its purposes.”

“We can shoot for a 200 billion dollar industry in Technical Textiles”

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Encouraging the participants to be big and bold, the Minister shared his belief that we can shoot for a 200 billion dollar industry in technical textiles. “The technical textile sector will enable us to find applications in modern technology areas. Technical textiles are going to be used increasingly in ocean ships and in the airline industry as well.”

The Minister said that Technotex will help us showcase our own abilities to Indian companies and the rest of the world. “More webinars, seminars and conferences with technical people from different user sectors should be held, where the textiles industry can showcase the various applications of technical textiles.” He exhorted the domestic industry to earn the trust of the world as reliable suppliers of technical textiles, so that the market share of India can be significantly expanded.

“Capture India’s G20 Presidency Opportunity”

Speaking of India’s G20 Presidency, the Minister asked the technical textile industry and the textiles industry in general to capture the opportunities afforded by the G20 meetings to find opportunities to do business with friendly countries. The Minister recalled the 5-F Principle of Farm to Fibre to Factory to Fashion to Foreign espoused by the Prime Minister as the way forward for the industry.

Asserting that the environment is conducive and positive, the Minister underlined that what we need are focussed goals and actionable agenda. Speaking of the Rs. 1,480 crore National Technical Textile Mission, the Minister urged the industry and other stakeholders to examine what new research, new compounds, fabrics, composites and final products can be leveraged in order to capture the global market. “We will be happy to offer all eight Textile Research Associations and other government institutes to support any private sector initiative, to get high quality scientific rigour into your innovations and fast-track your proposals.”

“Train Two Lakh People in Two Years”

The Minister said that the Ministry could offer technical training in the SAMARTH scheme, along with a skilling component which is available under the National Technical Textile Mission. “I urge the industry to utilize these schemes, to contribute to the development of skilled personnel in the industry. I would like the technical textile industry to have a target of 2 lakh people being trained every two years.” The Minister announced that a Committee will be constituted to oversee and monitor the aforementioned training of manpower for the technical textile sector.

The Minister said that the Production Linked Incentive scheme is doing well and that the Ministry is coming up with further additions to the Scheme for finished products. Speaking of the circular economy, the Minister encouraged everyone to look at waste and keep sustainability as a key element of the work done by the industry.

The Minister exhorted everyone including the student community to make quality and sustainability a part of our lives. “All of us and our young generation should imbibe the principle of Zero Effect Zero Defect in our lives and make quality a mantra. BIS has come up with seven quality standards today, Quality Control Orders are also going to be institutionalized in the days to come. This will help us to make our products world-class.” Let us aspire to make India Aatma Nirbhar, at the same time, we have the strength to make the world reliant on India, the Minister said.

The Textiles Minister appealed to the audience to consider gifting textile products made by our artisans and weavers.

Release of Seven BIS Standards and Knowledge Report on Best Practices in Technical Textiles

The Minister also released a Knowledge Report on global best practices in technical textiles on the occasion. The report can be accessed here.

A set of seven BIS Standards for technical textiles was also released.

The Minister also released the Exhibitors’ Catalogue, showcasing the products presented by the Technotex exhibition.

The three-day flagship event comprising buyer-seller meets, an international exhibition and conference was inaugurated by Union Minister of State for Textiles Darshana Jardosh on February 22, 2023 and is coming to a close today. Organized by the Union Ministry of Textiles and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), the event provides a common platform for interaction amongst stakeholders from across the global technical textile value chain.

The three-day exhibition cum conference cum buyer-seller meets has sought to envision Indian Technical Textiles at 2047. It exemplifies the immense potential for trade and investment between India and foreign countries in the technical textile sector. It pooled in participants, visitors, and other key decision makers from a diverse cross section of the Technical Textiles Industry, aiming to provide more innovative solutions, identify new business opportunities and create an environment congenial for growth. Check out the brochure of the event accessed here.

Addressing the gathering, Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, Rachna Shah said that Technotex is a unique platform which brings together all stakeholders connected with the technical textile to deliberate and engage on how to take the sector forward. “It is gratifying to note that the response this year has been very encouraging, with more than 150 exhibitors and more than 250 buyers from across the world, from more than 30 countries. I am confident that this would have generated a lot of business opportunities and for working together.” The Secretary thanked the host state Maharashtra and the partner states.

Speaking on the theme of Technotex 2023, the Secretary said that it brings into focus the overarching vision of making India a hub for technical textiles. “The demand for technical textiles is growing globally, in a couple of years, it will be about 320 billion dollars, while India is aspiring to reach a figure of 40 billion dollars by 2025-26. While it is a huge task, we believe we can achieve it provided we put our hands together.”

The Secretary said that the government is deeply committed to working with all stakeholders to generate demand, strengthen research, bring out new applications for technical textiles, and promote startups to bring innovation. “The government is working on the National Technical Textiles Mission as well as on standards and quality. Production Linked Incentive Scheme has been able to generate a good amount of interest, which is expected to bring in roughly Rs. 10,000 crore investment in the technical textiles sector.” The Secretary hoped that the recommendations emerging from Technotex would be incorporated in government policies for the sector.

Joint Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, Rajeev Saxena informed that the post-pandemic edition of Technotex witnessed more than 150 exhibitors from countries including Taiwan, Germany, Switzerland, South Africa, Korea, Russia and Luxembourg. There were special stalls by Make in India, DPIIT, Textile Research Associations and Centres of Excellence. More than 5000 visitors and more than 250 international buyers came in the first two days to attend the event. The Joint Secretary informed that seven technical sessions were held in order to chart a way forward towards the vision of Technical Textiles in the year 2047. The presentation given by the Joint Secretary can be accessed here.

Presenting the industry perspective, Member, National Executive Committee, FICCI, H K Aggarwal said that the Indian technical textile market is expected to grow at 8%-10% per year. The government and the industry are working hard to accelerate this growth rate to 15% - 20% per year. Mr. Aggarwal said that initiatives such as the National Technical Textile Mission will provide a catalyst to the textiles sector in India. Noting that the technical textiles industry encompasses many applications and sectors, he said that each application has a unique value chain. “It will be very useful to identify gaps in each application value chain where we need to develop indigenous capabilities”.

Chairman & Mentor, FICCI Technotex SME Organizing Committee Mohan Kavrie delivered the vote of thanks and wished the exhibition success.

Technotex Roundtables deliberate on Investment, Startups and Applications of Technical Textiles in sectors such as Defence, Agriculture and Infrastructure. The 10th edition of Technotex had a series of roundtable meetings over the three days. The session on Investment Potential & Opportunities Present in Indian Technical Textiles Industry emphasized on capitalizing new opportunities, Ease of Doing Business in India and facilitating investments contributing to rapid growth. Enabling the Startup Ecosystem in Technical Textiles and Start-Ups Leveraging Technologies in Smart Textiles focussed on Startups in Technical Textiles ecosystem, knowledge exchange on best practices for nurturing them, developing capacities of an entrepreneurial ecosystem, and mobilizing global and domestic capital for investments into startups.

The roundtable on Technical Textiles - A User Perspective (Defence & Security Institutions) highlighted the buyers’ perspective on India as both a market and a destination for sourcing and their outlook on India's product mix, innovation, quality levels, and product standardization. The deliberation on Exploring the Window of Opportunity for Usage of Technical Textiles in PM GATI SHAKTI sought to understand the expectations and perspective of the different Line Ministries and Departments relevant to Geotextiles, Agrotextiles, Building Textiles, and Industrial Textiles, revolving around understanding the opportunities for Geotextiles in the infrastructure projects such as PM GATI SHAKTI. A meeting titled Exploring the Potential of Technical Textiles for Protected and Sustainable Agro-Produce was focussed on realizing the potential, enhancing adoption rate and capitalizing new opportunities in the usage of technical textiles in agriculture. Another roundtable explored how we can develop Domestic Capabilities and Capacities in the field of Meditech and strengthen India’s role in global market. Another session titled ‘Canvassing on Standards, Quality, Regulatory & Trade Aspects of Technical Textiles’ explored the existing framework and way forward in the context of Standards, Quality, Regulatory & Trade in Technical Textiles.

(With Inputs from PIB)