New textile policy for overall development of the sector in works: Smriti Irani

Textile minister Smriti Zubin Irani on Friday took to Lok Sabha on Friday and said that the government is formulating a new textile policy for the overall development of the sector including human resource development. “Inputs from all the state governments, individuals through e-portal and different associations are being solicited,” she said. Different stakeholder’s consultation meetings are also underway under broad topics such as cotton, silk, jute, wool, man-made fibre, handloom, handicrafts, power loom, technical textiles, technology & machinery upgradation, infrastructure (spinning, weaving and processing), and human resource development. In a separate reply, she also said the government has not received demand for a restructuring package for textile and garment units.

She also said in the lok Sabha that the share of textile sectors to India’s GDP and GDP manufacturing sector are 2.2% and 12.22%, respectively during 2017-18 as per the National Accounts Statistics, 2018. “Textile industry is facing some pressures and problems in the past few years like technological obsolescence, high input cost (power & capital), poor credit access, fragmented units, absence of fibre neutrality,” she said.

To another concern on textile mills, the minister said that as far as the National Textile Corporation is concerned, there is no textile mills shutdown during the last three years. 34 new cotton/man-made fibre spinning/composite mills have been enlisted during the last three years till September 30, 2019. Mills have been closed in the country, over the years mainly owing to financial problems and labour related issues.