Hon’ble Union Minister of Textiles, Commerce & Industry and Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution, Shri Piyush Goyal presided over the fifth interactive meeting with the Textile Advisory Group (TAG) in New Delhi to review the progress of initiatives for cotton value chain.

He approved the Quality Control Order (QCO) for mandatory certification of cotton bales under specification No. IS12171: 2019-Cotton Bales to augment supply of good quality cotton to the textile industry.  

Shri Piyush Goyal pointed out that quality of Indian cotton fibre is beneficial for farmers and industry both.

He stressed that branding of Indian Cotton will add great value to the entire cotton value chain from farmers to end users. MoU has been signed on 15.12.2022 between the CCI and TEXPROCIL to encourage the Trade and Industry to work on the principle of self-regulation by owning complete responsibility of Traceability, Certification and Branding of “KASTURI Cotton India” with the project target period of 2022-23 to 2024-25. Steering Committee and Apex Committee have been constituted and the work of Traceability, Certification will begin in the current cotton season.

Holistic plan to enhance cotton productivity by targeting the technology of HDPS, Closer Spacing and ELS has been approved. It is based on public private partnership with cluster based and value chain approach. Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR) under the aegis of Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has prepared this pilot plan to be implemented from 2023-24.

Shri Goyal emphasized strengthening testing facility needed to conform to KASTURI standards, DNA testing and traceability. He assured that adequate modern testing facilities would be created through BIS and TRAs (Textile Research Associations). BIS will ensure setting up of DNA testing facility for textile industry by convergence with Ministry of Textiles.

Hon’ble Minister also appealed to the industry to focus on quality and traceability of the entire textile value chain.

Smt. Darshana V. Jardosh, Hon’ble Minister of State for Textiles and Railways and TAG Chairman Shri Ashok Kotak also guided the TAG meeting.

Additional Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shri Abhilaksh Likhi and Joint Secretary Crops Mrs. Shubha Thakur, APEDA & BIS representatives, other senior officials from related Ministries and cotton value chain stakeholders were also present during the meeting.

Smt. Rachna Shah, Secretary, Textiles elaborated the efforts taken by the Ministry to enable separate HSN code for ELS cotton so that segregated statistical data for ELS cotton be made available to calibrate policy decisions henceforth.

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AD/NS