Diversify to polyester textile products- Ravi Capoor

The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI), the National apex body for the textiles & clothing industry across the Nation, organized an interactive meeting with  Ravi Capoor, Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India with the office-bearers of 48 textile Associations in South India representing the entire textile value chain.  The office-bearers / representatives of other National apex bodies such as AEPC, TEXPROCIL, PDEXCIL, SRTEPC, AMFII also participated in the interactive meeting.

In a Press Release issued here today, Mr.T.Rajkumar, Chairman, Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) has said Mr.Ravi Capoor, Secretary (Textiles) and Joint Secretary, Mr.Nihar Ranjan Dash participated in the interactive meeting.

He said that all the Associations thanked the Hon’ble Prime Minister, Union Minister for Textiles and Secretary (Textiles) for the bold decision of removing the anti-dumping duty levied on PTA.  He said that this initiative has enabled the indigenous fibre and filament manufacturers to reduce the price considerably.  Rajkumar has stated that the country has been suffering with surplus production capacities across the value chain that created during the last four years with huge investments that could be utilized for polyester textile manufacturers.

The Secretary (Textiles) in his address strongly advised that the textile industry especially in Tamilnadu to grab the opportunities by diversifying into polyester segment to boost exports.  He appreciated the sustainable initiatives taken by Tirupur and Coimbatore by implementing zero liquid discharge to protect the environment, predominantly using non-conventional energy to avoid carbon food print, apart from complying various labour and other social statutes.  He advised Tirupur Knitwear Cluster to brand its garments and products under sustainable programme that might fetch much larger margin globally and Government would extend all necessary support to promote the brand.

The Secretary (Textiles) also indicated that the Government would address all the structural issues in its new National Textile Policy that might be announced in a couple of months by making the basic raw materials available at international price, encourage scale of operation by developing 10 mega textile parks with over 1000 acres of land closer to the ports, giving plug and play facilities including the necessary safeguard measures in the labour laws.  Mr.Ravi Capoor also indicated addressing the power cost, credit cost and its availability; the government would also make efforts to expedite conclusion of FTAs with EU, UK and other countries to boost the exports.

T.Rajkumar has stated that the Government has identified the textile industry as the thrust area and in real terms “Make in India” facilities without any imports right from fibre to finished goods, ensures inclusive growth by providing jobs to all skill levels especially the rural masses and women folks.  Mr.Rajkumar has stated that the Government would also announce a Scheme to set up dedicated textile parks for technical textiles, textile machinery manufacturing with the state-of-the-art technology spares, accessories, parts to promote import substitution thereby reducing the capital cost substantially as India is currently depending on imported technology barring spinning sector. He has said that the Government is also exploring the possibilities of setting up R & D centres with the State-of-the-art facilities for each segment of the textile industry.

On behalf of National apex bodies, Padmashree Dr A Sakthivel, Prem Malik, M.Senthil Kumar, Rakesh Mehra and Ajay Sathana participated in the interactive meeting.