Textile Machinery Manufacturers’ Association (India) at the “62 nd Annual General Meeting of the Association”

Respected Ms. RoopRashi, Textile Commissioner-Mumbai, Ministry of Textiles, Mr. T. Rajkumar, Chairman, Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (Chairman-Sri Mahasakthi Mills Limited), my colleagues on the dais, distinguished guests and friends,

He extended a hearty welcome to all of you to the 62^ndAnnual General Meeting of Textile Machinery Manufacturers’ Association (India).

He was grateful to Ms. RoopRashi, Textile Commissioner-Mumbai, and Mr. Mr. T. Rajkumar, Chairman CITI,for accepting our invitation despite their busy schedule, as the Chief Guest and Guest of Honor respectively. He extended a warm welcome to both of them and would like to have their valuable advice and guidance to make the Textile Engineering Industry vibrant.

Before moving our Annual Report and the audited statement of accounts for approval of the members, Hebriefed about the Indian TEI in general and enumerate the role of the association in the year gone by.

The Year Gone By

It has been an absolutely prosperous year, especially after the bumpy ride of the previous year.

The fiscal year 2021-22 has shown one of the best growthsof the entire textile and the textile machinery industry in the last few decades. A 130% production, 94% capacity utilization, 58% jump in exports and a 14% rise in the installed capacity that was stagnant for almost a decade; substantiates it all.

The year started on a gloomy note with the pandemic hovering our neighborhoods and compelling us to be grounded now and then.

It appeared that the renewed lockdown measures to contain mass population, industry and the institution from contracting the pandemic didn’t yield much result as there were mixed reactions from different quarters of the polity, community and decision makers globally on the issues of sustaining lives versus economies. While the developed countries including India were successful in developing the Covid-19 vaccine and initiating the mass vaccination programs, the rate of inoculating the populace proved insufficient. The coming quarters in the new fiscal year looked gloomy, but the industry proved all that wrong, as the entire value chain across the markets globally performed exceptionally well barring a few segments. The Government of India continued on the previous year’s strategies and action plans for business continuity, sectoral revival and further improving ‘Ease of Doing Business’ in the country.

Although the ongoing geopolitical tension has only aggravated the inflationary environment and trying to put brakes on the strong growth momentum, I am sure our Entrepreneurial spirits will continue to put up a fight and maintain our economy at full throttle.

Production-Export-Import Trends

The TEI scaled up its estimated annual installed capacity of Rs.12,500 crore per annum. The total provisional production of textile machinery, parts & accessories during 2021-22recorded a substantial increase of 130% viz. Rs.11700 crore in 2021-22 as against Rs.5,095 crore achieved during 2020-21.Except the complete lockdown during Q1 of 2021-22 due to the disastrous second wave of Covid Pandemic, the majority of the industry segments continued on the momentum of the market gains picked up during 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarters of 2020-21quite well. Both greenfield and brown field projects were explored with clients during the Q2, Q3 & Q4 of the fiscal. Throughout the year, the capacity utilization was close to 100% and the industry was able to achieve up to 130% of their annual turnover as compared to 2020-21.

As per the data received from DGCI&S, the export of Indian TEI stood at Rs. 4291 crores in 2021-22 from Rs. 2721 crores in 2020-21. On the other hand, the import of the Indian TEI stood at Rs. 12635 crores in 2021-22 as compared to Rs. 6778 crores in 2020-21.

The total domestic demand for textile machinery during 2021-22,rose to Rs. 18,290 crores of which supplies from the domestic machinery industry amounted to Rs.7,410 crore (minus exports), aggregating 41% of the total demand. The bulk of the demand was met through imports.

Measures for Growth Orientation

 Although the beginning of the year appeared a little bleak, the year 2021-22 ended with a staggering US $400 Billion plus goods exports for the first time ever, thanks to Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of Make in India for the World and the Government’s deep engagement with the industry at all fronts.

The office of the textile commissioner coordinated and processed the ATUF Scheme efficiently, inspite of spending a few months of complete lockdown. Majority of the cases related to the enlistment of textile machine manufacturers, induction of new machine types in the ATUF scheme and the release of ATUF subsidy were cleared on time. However, the uncertainty prevails in the industry about the lack of information on continuation of ATUF Scheme after 31^stMarch 2022, when the scheme concluded.

The association worked closely with Kalam Institute of Health Technology (AMTZ Vishakhapattanam) and Invest India both of whom conducted separate studies on the Indian Textile Engineering Industry (TEI) under the aegis of ‘Ministry of Textiles’ during the year. The KIHT conducted a ‘Technology Gap Analysis in the Indian TEI’, and Invest India published an Opportunity Paper covering the Textile Machinery Industry in India. Written in association with TMMA, it showcased India’s strengths in Textile Machinery to both global and domestic players and highlight the opportunities and advantages of investing in the Indian TEI.

Inspired by the report’s mass appeal the industry requested the association to work with Invest India again to bring out segment specific papers that would enable both the MHI and MoT to bring out suitable policies/ schemes for the industry.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

After a decade of persistent efforts, for the first time the Ministry of Textiles have recognized us as their integral part and hence we are now being considered to be a part of their new scheme.

The association is closely working in this regard with the MoT to prepare a draft for ‘Textile Technology Development Scheme (TTDS)’ that would benefit both the textile and the textile machinery industry. With a proposed budget outlay of approximately INR 16500 crores for 5 years the draft scheme is still under deliberation. There may be lot of iterations and additions before it could be announced after cabinet’s approval during 2022-23.

Probably our respected Chief Guest, Ms. RoopRashiMahapatra (Textile Commissioner) would be able to brief you about the same in her address shortly.

Besides we shall have the honor to listen to our Guest of Honor, Mr. Rajkumar on the Textile Industry’s strategy on taking the lead position by India@2047.

Export and R&D Awards

It is our normal practice to present Export and R&D Awards at the Annual Session of the Association. In this Session, we are giving Awards for Export Excellence,segment wise export performance awards and Awards for R&D for the year 2021-22. He congratulated the award winners in advance for putting in great efforts in the promotion of exports and the development made in textile engineering arena.

Immediately after our business session, He requested our Chief Guest Ms. RoopRashi, Textile Commissioner-Mumbai, Ministry of Textiles, and Mr. Rajkumar, Chairman CITI, representing Ministry of Textile and our user industry respectively, to present the Awards to winners and address the gathering.

Mr T. Rajkumar (CITI), Chairman’s Address: (Guest of Honour):

Speech of CITI Chairman, Shri T. Rajkumar for Textile Machinery Manufacturers’ Association’s 62^nd AGM to be held on 30^th September 2022 in Mumbai

• At the outset, he congratulated the Textile Machinery Manufacturers’ Association (TMMA) for holding its 62^nd Annual General Meeting today.
• TMMA is one of the premier associations of India which represents the interest of the textile machinery manufacturers of India and thus it acts as a catalyst in the promotion and overall development of the Textile Engineering Industry (TEI) by influencing policy decisions and strategic developments.
• We all know that in the manufacturing sector, machines are of prime importance. The Built, Quality, and Technology of machinery play an important in the success of any industry.
• Friends our Textile & Apparel Market stood at about US$ 160 bn during 2021 including exports of about US$ 41.5 bn. It is heartening to know that as of March March 2022, India has become the 5th largest economy in the world surpassing the United Kingdom and during the April-June quarter of 2022-23, India’s economy grew by 13.5%, making it one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
• With a large population base and growing per capita income, India’s domestic T&A market is on the rise. Also, on the exports front, the Government besides bringing various policy reforms, also announced various schemes like PLI and PM MITRA which are aimed at making India as one of the largest manufacturing hubs of Textile & Apparel products in the world.
• We have a strong Government at the Center and under the dynamic leadership of Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi Ji, the Indian T&A industry is extremely hopeful of touching the mark of US$ 350 bn T&A market including US$ 100 bn exports in years to come.
• This increase in market size will not be possible without appropriate investment in machinery and accessories, thus, a huge opportunity is waiting for Indian Textile Machinery Manufacturers in years to come provided they make themselves capable of catering to this huge demand.
• Keeping in view the importance of the latest technology, the Government brought the flagship Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) which was aimed at the modernization of the Indian Textile Industry. The scheme played a key role in the upgradation of the Indian Textile Industry, however, the scheme got expired on 31^st March 2022.
• To keep the momentum going, Government is now planning to bring a simplified TUFS scheme with lesser paper & procedural requirements and it will play a key role in the further modernization of the Indian Textile Sector.
• Friends, our domestic machine manufacturers have huge potential and they have been successful in developing many world-class machineries, however, there is still a huge gap in the technology of indigenous machines and the machines manufactured globally except for the spinning machines.
• Even in spinning, the industry had to import certain machines like Auto-corners, winders, fancy doublers, etc. to meet the quality requirements of the global brands and sustain export competitiveness.
• In the case of warping, sizing, weaving, processing, and garmenting machines, the indigenous technology could be used only for producing low and medium value-added textile products. The industry has to depend a lot upon imported machines to produce quality products with certain specifications as prescribed by the customers.
• He called upon the domestic textiles machinery manufacturers to come up and fill these gaps in technology. And urge them to avail of the various Central and State level Policy Support available today for joint venture and collaboration, to ensure that India adopts the best-in-class technology.
• Indian T&A industry is in expansion mode and is trying to avail of the benefits of PLI and PM MITRA scheme besides the various State Textile Policy that are not only offering capital subsidy and support towards land, Plant & Machinery, but also towards sustainable technology.
• A lot is happening on Sustainability all over the world with customers asking for sustainable products, especially in markets like EU, USA, etc. and in the coming time this trend is likely to be compounded and hence such emerging trends should be continuously monitored and considered during technology development.
• From a limited concern on hazardous chemicals and emissions a decade back, the quality and environmental compliance requirement of our major markets are getting more complex. I call upon for greater support from technology partners in meeting these requirements.
• The upcoming EU legislation for ensuring sustainability, the growing call of circularity, the emerging area of metaverse and efficient digital supply chain, the ever-expanding scope of digitization of manufacturing and supply chain management – all call for greater technology innovation and upgradation.
• The future growth of Indian Textile & Apparel Industry both domestically and globally largely depends on the pace at which we can meet the above required changes.

Mrs. RoopRashi Mahapatr, Textile Commissioner (Chief Guest):

Madam whole heartedly congratulate to our TEI on making strong foundation of entire value chain in textile industry. She also reiterated that industry is doing good shape even though we are facing various challenges and concerns under TUF schemes.But at same time office receiving timely support from the industry as & when required.  She also suggested to push more focus on asset definitions which eventually simplify the process of implementation in TUF scheme and also this would help in resolve the past pending issues/cases.

Government is looking very positively on textile sector particularly on TEI where 60 to 70% cost is under machinery base with  most of the value chain by enhancing its production capacity by providing various government supports.

Government currently looking for address on issues like access of raw material, processing and getting that to the market access. And for the same our Commerce Minister Shri Piyush Goyel ji emphasis to moving ahead with the same direction to provide all industrial support from govt.

Quality assurance and sustainability are two most concerns on which industry needs to guide the country to take it on world standards that’s what government expect from industry to ensure and deliver.

In last madam assure the best schemes and policies will deliver to our industry from government but government also look forward that whatever promise they received from PLI 1 & PLI 2 in terms of investment from the industry is also need to achieve, otherwise the whole working would lose its steam. And finally, she expressed her gratitude for inviting her to all office bearers and members of TMMA.

At the end of function, Mr. M. Sankar, 1 st Vice-Chairman, TMMA (I) expressed his vote of thanks to all the stakeholders of TEI for their valuable participation.