The Union Minister of Textiles, Commerce & Industry and Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution, Shri Piyush Goyal presided over the seventh interactive meeting with the Textile Advisory Group (TAG) on Cotton, on 31^st August, 2023, to review the progress of initiatives for cotton value chain in Coimbatore.

Smt. Darshana V. Jardosh, Minister of State for Textiles and Railways, Smt. Rachna Shah, Secretary Textiles, Shri Suresh Kotak, Chairman, TAG, Senior Officials from the Union Ministries of Textiles, Agriculture & Farmer’s Welfare, Commerce, Finance, O/o Textile Commissioner, Textiles Committee, CCI, ICAR-CICR, CSIR-NBRI, APEDA, BIS, other senior officials from related Ministries and stakeholders were present. The whole of textile value chain was represented in the consultations through lead associations and experts in the meeting.

Shri Goyal mentioned that India is hosting the 81^st Plenary Meeting of the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) and called attention of industry and trade members to make it a success. The 81^st Plenary Meeting of ICAC will be hosted from 2^nd to 5^th December 2023 in Mumbai with the theme “Cotton Value Chain- Local Innovations for Global Prosperity” and is expected to be attended by almost 400 delegates including 300 foreign delegates from 26 member countries. Further, it is proposed to showcase products made from Kasturi Cotton and also showcase best sustainable practices.

Hon’ble Minister highlighted that the project for development of cotton markers inorder to promote DNA testing of cotton in the country will be initiated in collaboration with Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Botanical Research Institute (CSIR-NBRI). The project aims to develop genetic markers for precise discrimination of both inter-and intra-species cotton varieties and to establish protocol for extraction of DNA from the different stages of cotton textiles i.e., short and long staple fibre, yarn, gray fabric, unbleached fabric, bleached fabric, printed fabric, finished dyed fabric, etc. DNA testing facility would be a big step towards Atmanirbharta, since it will be first of its kind in the country.

Shri Goyal also assessed the progress of project on Traceability, Certification and Branding of Kasturi Cotton India and lauded that branding of premium Indian Cotton will add great value to the entire cotton value chain. TEXPROCIL, Implementing Partner for the project, has finalized the branding strategy for Kasturi Cotton. The Indian brand of cotton viz. Kasturi India cotton will be launched internationally and will help in placing the Indian cotton textile products on the global map.

Hon’ble Minister also noted the progress of the special project on cotton to enhance productivity and emphasized that increasing productivity of Indian cotton is the need of the hour, in order to provide a boost to the domestic industry. Operational area of about 9327 hectares has been covered under the project. He advised that the impact of the pilot project may be analyzed for scaling the project in the next cotton season.

Honourable Minister for State, Smt Darshana V Jardosh, appealed to all cotton value chain stakeholders to work together in a cohesive manner to regain supremacy in cotton to enhance value returns to farmers by adopting sustainable production methods and ensuring traceability in the value chain.

The industry and textile value chain stakeholders expressed their sincere gratitude for the prompt and pragmatic approach of the Minister to address their issues through consultative mode.

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AD/NS