Technical Textiles for Exports
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved a Rs.1,480 crore National Technical Textiles Mission, targeting a market size of US$40-$50 billion by 2024 at a growth rate of 15-20% with export potential.
The current penetration level of technical textiles is low between 5-10% against the level of 30-70% in developed countries, said Textile Ministry, justifying the growth potential.
As of now, the technical textile segment is estimated at US$16 billion, approximately 6% of the US$250 billion global technical textiles market.
The Mission will aim to make the segment a global player through market development, market promotion, international technical collaborations, investment promotions and ‘Make in India’ initiatives.
The component aims at export promotion of technical textiles enhancing from the current annual value of approximately Rs.14,000 crore to Rs.20,000 crore by 2021-22 and ensuring 10% average growth in exports per year up to 2023-24.
The Mission would have a four-year implementation till 2024.
The Mission will have four components:
Component-l (Research, Innovation and Development) with outlay of Rs.1,000 crore. This component will promote both:
- fundamental research at fibre level aiming at path breaking technological products in Carbon Fibre, Aramid Fibre, Nylon Fibre and Composites;
- application based research in geo-textiles, agro-textiles, medical textiles, mobile textiles and sports textiles and development of biodegradable technical textiles.
The fundamental research activities will be based on ‘pooled resource’ method and will be conducted in various Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) laboratories, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and other scientific, industrial and academic laboratories.
Application-based research will be conducted in CSIR, IIT, Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) of Indian Railways, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), National Aeronautical Laboratory (NAL), Indian Road Research Institute (IRRI) and other such reputed laboratories.
The research output will be reposited with a ‘Trust’ with the Government for easy and assessable proliferation of the knowledge thus gained through research innovation and development activities.
A sub-component of the research will focus on development of bio degradable technical textiles materials, particularly for agro-textiles, geo-texti!es and medical textiles.
It will also develop suitable equipment for environmentally sustainable disposal of used technical textiles, with emphasis on safe disposal of medical and hygiene wastes.
There is another important sub-component in the research activity aiming at development of indigenous machineries and process equipment for technical textiles, in order to promote ‘Make In India’ and enable competitiveness of the industry by way of reduced capital costs.
Promotion of innovation amongst young engineering, technology, science standards and graduates will be taken up by the Mission; along with creation of innovation and incubation centres and promotion of ‘start-up’ and Ventures’.
A Mission Directorate in the Ministry of Textiles headed by an eminent expert in the related field will be made operational.
Technical Textiles products are divided into 12 broad categories (Agrotech, Buildtech, Clothtech, Geotech, Hometech, Indutech, Mobiltech, Meditech, Protech, Sportstech, Oekotech, Packtech) depending upon their application areas. Fiinews.com
Technical Textiles are futuristic and niche segment of textiles, which are used for various applications ranging from agriculture, roads, railway tracks, sportswear, health on one end to bullet proof jacket, fire-proof jackets, high altitude combat gear and space applications on other end of spectrum. fiinews.com
