TEXPROCIL Chairman Highlights Export Growth Vision and Industry Support at Export Awards 2023–2024
At the TEXPROCIL Export Awards Function 2023–2024 held in Mumbai, TEXPROCIL Chairman Shri Vijay Agarwal highlighted the resilience of India’s cotton textile industry amid global disruptions and outlined the sector’s expectations from the Government to strengthen export competitiveness and achieve long-term growth targets.
Below is the Chairman’s Awards Speech:
Ladies and Gentlemen, Namskar
A very warm welcome to all of you at the prestigious TEXPROCIL Export Awards Function. We are deeply honoured by the gracious presence of Hon’ble Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman ji. We are also grateful to the Textile Commissioner Ms. Vrunda Desai, senior Government officials, industry leaders, exporters, and members of the textile fraternity present here today.
Madam, I want to inform u that u r sitting today amongst the members of the oldest Export Promotion Council in India. TEXPROCIL was established in 1954- with the objective of promoting cotton textiles-mainly grey fabrics from India—and with time the council started promoting exports of yarn, processed fabrics/blends and most importantly home textiles. There was a time when this council used to represent even Apparel which was later moved to AEPC, sometime in 1978.
Madam, inspired by the 5F vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji — “Farm to Fibre to Factory to Fashion to Foreign”, the products under this Council span the entire cotton ecosystem. We have around 2000 members and our exports are valued at almost US$ 11 billion. Our industry employs 35 million people directly and indirectly, The sector contributes significantly to India’s exports and supports millions of livelihoods across the farm-to-fashion ecosystem, making it one of the strongest pillars of the Indian economy.
Besides promoting exports of cotton products, we have also been given the task of promoting Indian cotton brand ‘Kasturi cotton.’ We are the implementing agency for branding, certification and traceability of this home grown cotton brand.
Madam, I would like to place on record our sincere appreciation to the Government of India, particularly the Ministry of Finance under your esteemed leadership, for the timely and proactive support extended to the industry during every phase of the global disruption— seen from 2019.
Industry has gone through 3 major crisis during this period - Covid, then Tariffs and now Middle East war. Yet, in spite of these challenges, the Indian textile industry has shown remarkable resilience and continued to maintain its strong global presence through the determination and entrepreneurial spirit of our exporters and visionary support from the Government.
During the COVID crisis, landmark measures such as the Aatma Nirbhar Bharat package totalling ₹27.1 trillion (over $360 billion) was announced. Similarly, the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS), MSME support initiatives, and reforms in credit access helped industries in protecting employment across the value chain.
The measures to support liquidity infusion including deployment of targeted liquidity windows for non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) supported the industry to survive an extremely difficult period. Structural Reforms introduced by the Government, including revising the definition of MSMEs, has helped smaller enterprises to scale up their operations. Also other initiatives such as easing the corporate compliance norms, and permitting higher borrowing limits for State Governments have supported trade revival during this period.
During the era of Tariff escalations and war, the Government has provided tailored support to exporters suffering from insurance risks, raw material disruptions, and payment settlement blockages in war-torn regions. The Emergency Credit extension through the Emergency Liquidity Credit Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS 5.0) has been of great support to units facing supply chain and raw material costs, especially the SMEs.
These proactive efforts and timely steps, Madam, under your leadership during this period ensured that both businesses and the common people remained insulated and protected from the severe impact of global economic shocks. Madam, the Government has acted swiftly through trade facilitation measures, export support initiatives, and kept the morale high and managed to ease the impact of supply-chain disruptions and rising input costs.
The omnibus Export Promotion Mission (EPM), announced in the Union Budget 2025–26, marks a significant structural reform by integrating multiple export-support initiatives into a unified, outcome-driven and digitally enabled framework. With an outlay of ₹25,060 crore for the period FY 2025–26 to FY 2030–31, the Mission seeks to strengthen India’s export ecosystem by improving access to affordable trade finance, enhancing market preparedness, and boosting global competitiveness across sectors and regions. Its twin pillars — “Niryat Protsahan” and “Niryat Disha” — have provided a strong long-term direction for export growth.
The Union Budget 2026–27 announced two important initiatives — the Textile Expansion and Employment (TEEM) Scheme and the Tex Eco Initiative — aimed at strengthening competitiveness, modernisation, sustainability, and employment generation across the textile sector. The Budget has rightly been appreciated as distinctly textile-centric, with a strong focus on manufacturing growth and inclusive development.
Madam, TEXPROCIL remains fully committed to supporting the vision of the Government of India in strengthening the country’s export ecosystem and ensuring effective dissemination of policy initiatives among exporters, especially MSMEs in the cotton textile value chain.
In this regard, the Council has been regularly organising capacity-building programmes, webinars, stakeholder consultations, and outreach sessions on key areas such as GST, the Trade Connect e-Platform, logistics, export documentation, and digital trade facilitation.
Today, we will also be inaugurating, at the hands of the Hon’ble Finance Minister, an Advanced Certificate program in international trade, aimed at achieving excellence in Global trade through skills and capacity building. This will ensure that the industry professionals working in export houses and trading houses are trained to meet the emerging challenges in EXIM trade
Today, India stands at the threshold of a major growth opportunity. With landmark Free Trade Agreements being concluded with key markets, Indian textiles and apparel are well-positioned to emerge as reliable, sustainable, and competitive sourcing partners for the world.
Madam, we have three major asks from the Government In order to fully realise the sector’s full potential and achieve a market size of US $ 350 billion including exports of US $ 100 billion by 2030, the industry seeks continued long term policy support under three broad areas.
First, ensuring the availability of raw materials at international prices, Schemes like the Advance Authorisation should become more exporter-friendly through updated SION norms, simplified procedures, seamless domestic sourcing mechanisms, and flexible export obligation timelines during global disruptions.
Secondly, it is essential that no embedded taxes and levies are exported. To that extent the RoDTEP and RoSCTL rates should adequately reflect the actual incidence of unrebated taxes and levies across the value chain.
Thirdly, the industry seeks continued support for improving export competitiveness through affordable export finance, continuation of interest equalisation support, improved logistics efficiency.
Going forward Madam, these measures will significantly strengthen India’s position as a trusted global textile sourcing destination.
Before I conclude, I extend my heartiest congratulations to all the award winners being honoured today. Your achievements, innovation, and commitment to excellence continue to inspire the entire industry.
I once again express my sincere gratitude to Hon’ble Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman ji, for taking time out of her busy schedule to be with us and encourage all our exporters in these trying times. Madam, your presence today at our Awards Function is truly inspiring.
Also, many thanks to Textile Commissioner Ms. Vrunda Desai, distinguished guests, exporters, members, friends from Media and all participants for gracing this occasion and making this celebration truly memorable.
Thank you very much.