Technology up gradation is needed in decentralised sector whose contribution is 90% of the total contribution. India needs huge no of technical personnel to work as Entrepreneurs in modernising to produce new value-added products. As on date highly qualified technicians are not available for the Industry to work on production floor. Fresher’s are not ready to work on the production floor in the corporate Textile Industry also. Attrition of the textile graduates is very high in Indian Textile Industry they go for service and sales segment of the textile Business. Students easily migrate to other engineering specialisation in advanced country for higher studies. Acute shortage of the technical personnel to work on production floor both Corporate and Decentralised sector. This is mainly due to poor encouragement to Research in Textile field in India by the Industry. Technological gaps in Industry and academia is major hurdle in poor Technical ability and skills to work in the present Industry by the graduates coming from present Institutes.
Important factors to be considered in developing research are
- Human capital development with textile research & educational programs
- Industry Participation in Engineering education
- Mentoring new breed of Entrepreneurs to connect corporate Textiles with decentralized sector to work in Tandem to develop Textile Industry.
- Formation of Industry clusters to support and identify R & D institute’s mandate.
Needs to be done to rope in Industry/Academia/Research
There is a necessity to initiate research in following area
- Design and development of the Textile Machinery to produce quality products.
- Need for the development of the shuttle less weaving sector to provide quality Textiles, linked to readymade garments complete value chain.
- Textile Industry segments (Fibre to Fashion) needs up gradation in decentralized sector to help traditional products and develop new products with value addition in traditional sector in India.
Institute will facilitate any number of R&D programmes involving different organisations specialising in diverse parts of the textile and apparel industry. Primarily, though, it will concentrate on three types of scheme.
There will be platform research programmes open to interested parties including universities, institutions, and trade and industry associations. These should have the support of at least two industry sponsors willing to contribute no less than 10 per cent of the project’s costs.
In addition, private companies can take part in collaborative research programmes, and companies or consortia can request and pay for consulting and research services to assist them in specific areas.
New R&D centre will provide plenty of scope for local and overseas experts from different academic backgrounds and with expertise in many different fields. “Since there will be a great number of ongoing projects, we can continuously look for experienced professionals and project managers to be involved in developing the Textile Industry.
Main focus for R&D The following areas are the main focus of research and development in Textile Industry sector
- New materials, textiles and apparel products.
- Advanced textile and production technologies.
- Innovative design and evaluation technologies.
- Enhanced industrial systems and infrastructure.
Example for development of the decentralized sector
Cotton spinning capacity of the country could be better utilized if we can convert cotton yarn into garment to cater to the needs of the world requirements. Development of the value chain & supply chain by adopting appropriate Technology and R and D to develop world class brands. For this we as a country need to develop Technical human capital. Hence country needs to work for the development of the Human capital to work for the development of the following. Hence, I request to develop research Centre in following area. Here, Surat needs to create and improve value chain by Research in Man Made Fibre as well as other natural fibres. Need based Diversification in Business and New products for National and International market.
Market, Marketing and Market Development research needs to established to help support Industry in the decentralised sector. We have not made any inroads into the development of the manmade fibre industry in different applications mainly due to lack of R and D on par with Developed countries like Japan, Taiwan Korea china etc
Let us create few more socio-economic projects jointly with Textile Industry and government support to make unique model. We can take up such Model cluster Developments in Gujarat under this program. “Industry & Academia driven world class research Institute” for development of the Textile Industry. Surat and Gujarat can take a lead in this.
Dr. P. P. Raichurkar
Director – MANTRA, Surat
