In an another consecutive pro-industry initiative, today the Union Minister of Textiles, Smriti Zubin Irani, launched a comprehensive scheme for Development of Knitting and Knitwear Sector under PowerTex India. The Textiles Minister had interacted with industry associations related to knit wear sector in three clusters of Kolkata, Tirupur and Ludhiana through video link which is the first of its kind. Shri Sri Narain Aggarwal, Chairman SRTEPC welcomes the initiative taken by the Government and thanked Union Minister of Textiles, Smriti Zubin Irani for this important step.
This said Scheme of knitting and knitwear would benefit mostly the MSME who are in decentralized sector and it would give a major fillip to employment generation in the kitting sector in the country, Shri Narain Aggarwal said. The Hon’ble Minister informed that knitted fabrics contribute to 27% of the total fabric production in India and 15% of knitted fabric is being exported.
The main components of the scheme are:
- Creation of new service centers on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model by industry and association in the knitting and knitwear clusters.
- Modernization and upgradation of existing power loom service Centers (PSCs) and institution run by Textile Research Associations (TRAs) and Export Promotion Councils (EPCs) Association in knitting and knitwear clusters.
- Group work shed scheme.
- Yarn bank scheme.
- Common facility center scheme.
- Pradhan mantra Credit Scheme.
- Solar Energy Scheme.
- Facilitation, IT, awareness, studies, surveys, market development and publicity for knitting and knitwear units.
In the country, the present installed capacity of nearly 12,000 knitting machines is under SSI fold and nearly 4600 knitting machines is under non-SSI fold, besides a number of household knitting machines. Some of the major clusters in the knitted garment sector are Tirupur in Tamil Nadu, Ludhiana in Punjab, Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh and Kolkata in West Bengal and Surat in Gujarat. Tirupur is the most important export cluster, followed by Ludhiana. More than 90% of the garment is manufactured in Tirupur are exported.
This Scheme is need of the hour and it is expected to boost exports of knitted fabrics and garments from the country significantly, Sri Aggarwal stated.
