The Ministry of Textiles in partnership with Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) organized a full-day International Conference on Technical Textiles with the theme: Creating the Winning Leap in Technical Textiles. In this conference, there was a dedicated session on ‘CEO Speak’ chaired by Minister of State for Textiles. There were six sessions covering Growth & Investment potential in Technical Textiles, Waster material applications in technical textiles, Geo-textiles, Agro-textiles, Specialty fibres, Protective textiles, Sports textiles, and Medical textiles.

Around 1000 participants attended the conference including Officials and Representatives from 15 Line Ministries and Departments of the Central Government, State Government, Eminent Industrialists from India as well as abroad attended through hybrid mode (Physical and Virtual).

Speaking at the event, Guest of Honor, Minister of State of Textiles Smt. DarshanaVikramJardosh, highlighted the importance of technical textiles for boosting the economy of the country and its potential to contribute to the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s Mission on ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ through various flagship missions and schemes of the Government of India, including Jal Jivan Mission, Mission of Integrated Development of Horticulture, National Health Mission, National Investment Pipeline, and strategic sectors are expected to create untapped opportunities in the domestic market. She further emphasized that it is the right time to maximize investment, employment, and women’s participation in the industry.                 

Dr. V K Saraswat, Member NITI Aayog highlighted various factors to drive the domestic technical textiles market including rising incomes, expanding infrastructure and construction, growing healthcare, and increasing global market, among others.

R&D in technical textile projects augmented through usage of Bamboo fibres hold strong potential in India. In addition, tremendous growth opportunities and prospects will be created in the areas of Space Technology, Energy, Drones, among others, he added.

Professor K VijayRaghavan, Principal Scientific Advisor, Government of India highlighted the vital role of innovative solutions and R&D in driving the technical textiles market in India under its flagship programme National Technical Textiles Mission (NTTM) during his special address. Industry – Academia connect and linkage is essential for development of indigenous technical textiles.

He emphasized that in coming years various environmental issues will lead to rise in temperatures upto 50 Degrees Celsius, scarcity of drinking water, and other environmental hazards, and therefore, a proactive roadmap may be thought up for bringing up new high-end low-cost technological interventions in the application areas of Technical Textiles addressing the issue.

Shri U.P. Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Textiles highlighted the remarkable growth in scientific and technological innovation in fibre science and textile manufacturing processes. He added that India positioned itself as the 5th largest market with USD 20 Billion size and an annual average growth rate of 8%. With rapid industrialization, fast growth in infrastructure, increasing automobile production, rising demand from healthcare sector, increasing interest towards sports and fitness activities, awareness towards personal hygiene and sanitation; the growth of Technical Textiles in India is expected to remain sustained level for next decade.

He further added that the Government is making all efforts to promote technical textiles including mandatory use of 92 items by government organisations covering agriculture, horticulture, highways, railways, water resources, and medical applications, 100 new Indian Standards in the pipeline, and introduction of six new courses and another new 20 courses are under preparation in Technical Textiles.

In the opening remarks, Shri H K Agarwal, Member, CII National Technical Textiles Committee appreciated the dynamic vision and commitment of the Government of India in positioning Indian Technical Textiles as a Globally Competitive Market. He identified key pointers to create the winning leap in the Indian Technical Textiles sector through a Government-Industry-Academia driven task force for mandatory usage of technical textiles, development of technical textiles through recycled materials, and harmonize technical textile standards and regulations in line with global best practices, among others.

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AM/NS