Smriti Zubin Irani addressing on the launch of development of knitting and knitwear sector

Union Minister of Textiles, Smriti Zubin Irani, launched a comprehensive scheme for Development of Knitting and Knitwear Sector under PowerTex India in New Delhi today.The Textiles Minister also interacted with industry associations related to knit wear sector in three clusters of Kolkata, Tirupur and Ludhiana through video link.

Smriti Zubin Irani said knitting and knitwear sector is predominantly MSME in size and mainly located in decentralized sector and is one of the major employment generator sector. It also has a significant contribution on the exports of textiles. Knitting is a major segment in the entire textile value chain. The Minister further said that knitted fabrics contribute to 27% of the total fabric production in India and 15% of knitted fabric is being exported.

Textiles Minister assured that to look into the demand for creation of knitwear mark to give quality assurance to the customers. 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 centerscheme.

• Pradhan mantra Credit Scheme.

• Solar Energy Scheme.

• Facilitation, IT, awareness,studies, surveys, market development and publicity for knitting and knitwear units.

There is an installed capacity of nearly 12,000 knitting machines under SSI fold and nearly 4600 knitting machines 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. Tirupur is the most important export cluster, followed by Ludhiana. More than 90%mof the garment is manufactured in Tirupur are exported. 

TheMinistryhas approved combined SFC of PowerTex India Scheme and Knitwear Scheme with an outlay of Rs. 487.07 crores. Out of this Rs. 439.35 crore is for PowerTexfor 3 years from 1.4.2017 to 31.03.2020 and Rs. 47.72 crores for Knitwear for the remaining period of 2018-19 and for 2019-20.

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