ITAMMA Awards 2024–25 Highlight Innovation and Export Excellence in Textile Machinery

The ITAMMA Award (2024-25) function was held at Jenny’s Residency, Coimbatore on 7th March 2026. The event featured participation from industry leaders, including S. Krishnakumar and D. Venkadesan.

In his welcome address, Omprakash Mantry, President of ITAMMA, highlighted global geopolitical and economic challenges such as Red Sea disruptions, inflationary pressures, and protectionist tariffs, which have impacted India’s textile exports in 2025–2026. He noted a projected 9–10% contraction in textile exports to the U.S. in 2026 and an estimated revenue loss of ~15,000 crore in hubs like Tirupur.

He also stated that the Red Sea conflict has increased shipping costs and slowed trade with Europe and the U.S. Despite these challenges, he pointed to India’s target of $100 billion in textile exports by 2030, supported by China+1 strategies, Free Trade Agreements with the UK and UAE, and investments in sustainability. The finalized 18% tariff reduction with the U.S. and new FTAs with the UK (effective 2026) were also cited as measures to improve competitiveness.

Additional initiatives mentioned included diversification of export markets, focus on value-added and sustainable products to meet EU regulations, and policy measures such as production-linked incentives (PLI) and infrastructure upgrades. He further noted that India’s current global market share stands at 4%, with expectations of modest growth in 2026.

Chief Guest S. Krishnakumar stated, “On behalf of the entire textile industry particularly the textile industry in South India, I highly appreciate the yeomen services provided by the textile machinery manufacturers, spares and accessories manufacturers and suppliers, especially the Members of ITAMMA and the services provided by ITAMMA to its Members since 1948. On behalf SIMA and the entire textile industry, I admire the dedicated leadership and contributions made by the Immediate Past President of ITAMMA, Mr Bhavesh Patel. His expertise, involvement and advice should continue as the Past President not only to ITAMMA but also to the industry. I congratulate and compliment the recipients of Awards in today’s function.

I appreciate the awards committee of ITAMMA for thinking innovatively and bringing several awards based on the contributions made by each-manufacturing unit and recognising every year. In my opinion I don’t think any other organisation will be having so many award categories, notably Make in India, Recognition of patterns, export excellence award in each segment and also overall export performance etc., are some of the unique initiatives of ITAMMA that would constantly drive and motivate the industrial units to improve their performance and become a lead player in each area.

Friends yesterday at the inaugural function of TEXFAIR there was a mention about the continuous recession being faced by the Textile Industry and its impact on the Textile Machinery and its spares and accessories manufacturers and suppliers As rightly mentioned by the Presidents of ITAMMA and TMMA, in my opinion, the Indian Textile Industry has totally come out of the bad period and the industry is poised to achieve double digit growth rate in a short span of time. The Ministry of Textiles has envisaged attracting USD 100 billion by 2030. In order to make it a reality, the union budget 2026-27 has announced 5 Mega Schemes apart from announcing Mission for cotton productivity in the previous budget and boldly addressing several structural issues like removal of Anti-Dumping duty on all MMF raw materials, slotting entire MMF value chain in 5% GST slab and concluding 3 Mega FTA agreements with UK US and EU. In addition, PM Mitra Park Scheme PLI Scheme, NTTM Scheme etc., would also accelerate the investments and global competitiveness of the Indian Textile Industry.

Therefore now the time has come to perform by way of innovation taking advantage of Artificial Intelligence and other modern technologies and make India to become the Global Leader in Textiles and clothing manufacturing.

With these few words I once again thank the organisers for providing me an opportunity to participate in this memorable event.”

Guest Speaker D. Venkadesan presented on “Innovation is Not Technology – It is People,” outlining the role of human capital, culture, and leadership in driving innovation. He described the operations of Sri Jayajothi and Company Private Limited, including its spinning capacity of over 70,800 spindles and product offerings such as cotton yarn, blended yarn, warp yarns, hosiery yarn, ply yarns, cabled yarns, slub yarns, and multi-count and multi-twist yarns.

He emphasized that innovation is driven by people, stating that it involves mindset, initiative, and problem-solving rather than solely the adoption of technology. He also highlighted the importance of employee development, collaboration, and continuous improvement in achieving operational outcomes.

The event also included the release of ITAMMA Voice No. 19 and presentations by sponsors, including Jaivardhan on “The Next Wave of Textile Manufacturing: Automation, AI and Smart Factories.” Co-sponsors included AU Small Finance Bank Limited and Ayushman Solar.

Awards were presented across multiple categories, including Make in India, Recognition of Patent, Export Excellence, Special Awards for Dyestuff & Chemical Products, and Debutant Exporter Excellence. Awardees included representatives from Maksteel Wire Healds Pvt. Ltd., Millwright Engineering Pvt. Ltd., Precision Rubber Industries Pvt. Ltd., Lakshmi Ring Travellers (Coimbatore) Pvt. Ltd., Supertex Industries Pvt. Ltd., Century Inks Pvt. Ltd., Yogesh Dyestuff Products (P) Ltd., and The Indian Card Clothing Co. Ltd.

The event concluded with a vote of thanks delivered by Vishal Masand, who acknowledged the participation of guests, speakers, sponsors, and attendees.