The Government of India wants to create 75 Textile hubs like Tiruppur which will not only support textile product exports and ensure inclusion of sustainable technology, but will also generate huge opportunities for employment, said Union Minister of Textiles, Commerce & Industry and Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Shri Piyush Goyal at an event in Tiruppur today.

Shri Goyal said that Tiruppur has made country proud and is home to textile production of worth 30,000 crore every year. He said that the sector provides direct employment to 6 lakh people and indirect employment to 4 lakh people, therefore, collectively providing employment to 10 lakh people.

He said that in 1985, Tiruppur was exporting ₹15 Cr worth of textile products. In the year ended March 2022, the estimated exports from Tiruppur are ₹30,000 Cr which is about two thousand times growth. Considering the unprecedented growth of the textile sector in the region, in over 37 years, the compounded annual growth rate at Tiruppur comes to 22.87%.

He said that Tiruppur has immense employment avenues and called upon youngsters to grab the opportunity. Adding on he said that the youngsters will also be trained. He mentioned that presently, nearly 70% of those employed in the textile sector in Tiruppur are women and those from the marginalised sections.

Shri Goyal said that all over India, roughly 3.5-4 crore people are engaged in the total value chain of Textile sector alone. Textiles is the second largest provider of work after agriculture. The industry size is about ₹10 lakh Cr. The export is about ₹ 3.5 lakh crore. He reiterated that the Textile sector has the potential to grow to ₹20 lakh Cr industry in the next 5 years with exports of ₹10 lakh Cr. Even then, a modest export target of 7.5-8 lakh crore and production target of about 20 lakh crore which is doable in next 5 years has been set.

He talked about the challenges faced by India in terms of COVID as well as war between other countries. However, he stressed that despite the challenges, under the guidance of Prime Minister, India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

Shri Goyal said that if India grows at 8% every year on a Compounded Annual Growth basis, the economy will double in about 9 years’ time to be a $6.5 trillion economy. Similarly, in 18 years from now, the economy of India predicted is $13 trillion economy. In 27 years from now, the economy growth can be calculated as $26 trillion and hence after 30 years, it can be confidently put that India will be a $30 trillion economy.

He said that Tiruppur is the leading source of Hosiery, Knitted Garments, Casual Wear, Sportswear and is a traditional centre for cotton ginning.

He said during his visit to SITRA yesterday, he saw many innovative projects. He mentioned that the Centre will work with Health Ministry on the Sanitary Napkin Machinery in SITRA to provide low cost sanitary napkins under the PM Jan Aushadhi Yojana.

Shri Goyal participated in the Exporter’s Meet cum Felicitation Function at Tiruppur. He had an interactive meeting with representatives of Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) & Apparel Export promotion Council (AEPC).  Dr. L Murugan, Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Dr. A Sakthivel, President, FIEO, Shri Sudhir Sekhri, Vice Chairman, AEPC, Shri TV Chandrasekharan, Past Chairman, HEPC, Shri Raja M Shanmugam, President, TEA, Shri Geethanjali S Govindappan, Vice Presient, SIHMA, Shri Akhil S Rathinasamy, President, KNITCMA and Shri V Elangovan, MC Member, FIEO. More than 350 exporters apart from RMG sector form Tirupur , Engineering, Agri and Process Food, Textiles, Yarn sectors form Coimbatore, Karur, Madurail Erode, and others participated in the program.

Shri L Murugan, Union Minister of State for I &B in his address highlighted benefits of newly signed FTAS which will help the country to grow in many fold. For reducing the logistics cost, revolutionary measures such as PM Gati Shakti, the National Master Plan, would help improve infrastructure planning and ensure the implementation of projects within time and budget. Setting up of Multi Modal Logistics Parks, focus on container manufacturing, East West and North South freight corridors are steps in the same directions.

Dr A Sakthivel, President, FIEO in his welcome address appreciated the efforts of the Government of India in addressing the issues of exporters quickly and opening up vistas of market opportunities which helped the country in crossing export of USD 422 Billion during the last financial year. Dr. Sakthivel  appreciated the untiring efforts of Union Minister of Commerce and Industry in concluding FTAs with UAE and Australia and opined that on-going negotiation with UK, EU, GCC, etc will throw open new opportunities for Indian exporters. FIEO President also requested Hon’ble Commerce and Industry Minster’s  attention on  suggestions including linking issuance of RoSCTL and RoDTEP with export realization for better value, including left over sectors like Iron & Steel, Pharma, Chemicals etc in RoDTEP, extending the benefits to EOU/SEZ unites, AAA/DFA users, announcing revised TMA for Agri Sector, solution on money struck for export made to Sri Lanka, implementation of Rupee Payment System for export to Russia, Creation of MSME Market promotion fund, market access for emerging sectors in services, etc.

Shri Sudhir Sekhri, Vice Chairman, AEPC in his address requested for announcement of new Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) scheme, announcing Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI- 2) for the Apparel Sector and requested for export of cotton and cotton yarn should be suitably calibrated to ensure that cotton and cotton yarn is available to the exporting units at competitive prices.

***

AM/NS