Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Textiles, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Piyush  Goyal has urged the Textile industry to focus on speed, skill and scale and get into innovative partnership. He called for developing 100 Indian textile machinery champions recognized across the world.  

This was stated by Goyal while interacting with the Textile Machinery Manufacturers in a video conference on the topic ‘Technology Gap and Way Forward for Textiles Machinery Manufactures’. Goyal also asked the textile machinery manufacturers to get out of command-and-control mindset and work through plug and play to make the textile sector vibrant in name and sprit.

The Union Minister said that India should be looking to become a global player in producing textiles machinery, producing at scale, producing with quality & quantity the machinery of choice that the world requires. He said that we are not averse to imports but we must reduce the import dependency of the textile machinery in India by concerted effort between Textile Engineering Industry and Government together. He added that focus on quality will help to capture bigger markets and higher productivity.

Goyal expressed hope that a modern and upgraded textile machinery ecosystem would have a cascading impact on unorganized Indian textile industry. This would set the momentum for continuous advancement and innovation resulting into ever-evolving & enhancing competitive capabilities along the value chain. He said that the machinery manufacturing facility would change the inertia of the status quo, augment the dynamics along value chain and enhance the domestic consumption and further boost the exports of higher value goods while gradually reducing the import dependency. 

For this, it is important to synergise efforts of arms of Government between Textiles, Ministry of Heavy Industries, Digital Innovation/ adaptation possibilities in our quest of increasing efficiencies by reducing costs across manufacturing value chain. 

The Minister informed that Heavy Industries Capital Goods Scheme is a pilot scheme designed to support the industry to modernize domestic technologies. He said that National Capital Goods Policy is a manufacturing sector policy devised by the Government of India aimed at increasing the production of capital goods from the 2014-15 value of approximately $31 billion to $101 billion by 2025.

Referring to India’s recent achievement of 100 crore vaccines, Goyal said that the historic achievement was the result a collective effort of 130 crore Indians and a proof of India’s ‘Atmanirbharta’. He also referred to Mission  Chandrayan, which was also a breakthrough in India’s space programme. The Minister called upon the Textile Machinery Manufacturers to look at the same breakthrough of that nature in the textiles sector.

Goyal said that we are on a mission of transformational change. He said when PM speaks of Atmanirbhar Bharat, it means to provide India its rightful place on the global map. He mentioned that today, India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi feels reinvigorated, re-energised to think big & bold, to be more ambitious and to set for stiff targets. The Minister said that government has set target of $100 bn for textiles and garment exports over next five years and Textile sector  has an important part to play in achieving it.  

He added that Indian Textile Engineering Industry (TEI) is at the cornerstone of moving up the manufacturing excellence wherein the domestic R&D, entrepreneurial spirit and exploration of Joint Ventures have ushered in new opportunities.

The Minister also mentioned that the history of textile production in India dates back to times immemorial. He said the simple act of adopting khadi and charkha, as propagated by Mahatma Gandhi, took the freedom movement to the masses and made charkha a symbol of Self-reliance. In many ways, this also resonates with our Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for India and the spirit of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ (self-reliant India), he added.

Talking about Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme which talks of global champions and PM MITRA scheme which is trying to bring textiles clusters, Goyal said that seven locations will be identified soon to encourage the industry and prepare a common infrastructure for plug and play. He also urged the manufacturers to come and join PM  MITRA scheme and set up manufacturing units by reaping its advantages.

The Minister said that there are still some challenges like liquidity and rising costs of raw materials and freight movement for which government is actively taking many steps so that the TEI can overcome from such issues confidently. He also suggested that there is no harm in getting international capital which will help in creation of jobs in India, add value and expand the entire textiles ecosystem.          

Referring to the Centre of Excellence (CoE) for textile machinery, the Minister informed that CoE at Central Manufacturing Technology Institute (CMTI), Bengaluru was established for development of shuttle less rapier looms of 450 Revolution Per Minute (RPM), towards promoting indigenous technology innovation and advance manufacturing processes. 

Similarly, CEFC at Bardoli, Surat was initiated by Science Engineering and Technological Upliftment (SETU) Foundation, and will have a design center, tool room, training center, and testing lab to cater to the requirements of textile engineering industry.  In Delhi, CoE at IIT-Delhi was established to focus on product development, especially with specified industry partners. Goyal also called upon the younger generation to engage in business.

The Minister expressed hope that this very initiative of bringing all the relevant stakeholders viz industry, institutions and various government ministries on the same platform will synergize our efforts and will enable the Indian TEI to enhance its energies in the areas of state-of-the-art technology R&D, ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’ and export promotion.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Textiles, Darshna Jardosh stated that for textile industry, it is the golden period for investment and expand business as many important steps like PM MITRA Parks, PLI, RoDTEP, RoSCTL have been taken to boost the sector. She also said that textile machinery has an important part in the growth of this sector. And not only big machinery but small machinery also, is important to promote handloom and handicrafts sector, which are our cultural heritage and we need to preserve this legacy.

Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, U.P. Singh, Addl. Secretary, Vijay. K. Singh, Textile Commissioner, Chairman/President of the Textiles Machinery Manufactures Associations and CMDs/ MDs/ India heads of the leading indigenous and foreign Textiles Machine Manufacturers participated in the conference. 15 textile machines manufactures of foreign regions, 20 leading indigenous textile manufactures and 7 textile machinery and associated industry associations have participated and also submitted their view points.

The interaction was aimed  at devising possible strategy to develop a facilitating Ecosystem for growth of the Textiles Engineering Industry (TEI) in India under Make in India in order to compete globally in all industry segments on strength of Technology and scale, Initiatives towards Atmanirbhar Bharat: Meet 75% of domestic demand by 2026-27 and Cost reduction for the Textile Manufacturers and Enhancement of Value exports.