(a) Whether India has set any target to increase its share in global textiles market to 4% as compared to the current 2%;
(b) whether India is hopeful to surpass the other countries on textile exports;
(c) if so, the steps taken /to be taken to improve the textiles market share;
(d) whether the Government has any proposal to set up textile training centres in the country; and
(e) if so, the details thereof, location-wise?
MINISTER OF TEXTILES( SHRI SHANKERSINH VAGHELA )
(a) & (b): According to various studies, China and India will carve out a larger share of the global textiles and clothing markets in the post quota regime. As per a recent study by CRISIL (commissioned by Indian Cotton Mills Federation), India’s textiles and clothing industry has the potential to double the country’s share of the global textiles and clothing market to 6 per cent, implying export earnings of US$ 40 billion by 2010.
(c) to (e): In order to augment training facilities for meeting the growing skilled man-power requirements of garment industry at shop-floor level, Government has provided assistance to the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) for undertaking modernisation/expansion programme for Apparel Training & Design Centres (ATDCs). The programme envisages modernisation of the existing six ATDC centres at Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Bangalore and setting up six new centres at Noida, Gurgaon, Ludhiana, Tirupur, Trivandrum and Mumbai. Grant-in-aid amounting to Rs. 7.21 crores has been released to AEPC during the financial year 2004-05 for this purpose.
The Government has been taking a number of steps from time to time to enable the Indian textile industry to increase its share of the global market. Some of the important initiatives taken are:
i) The Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) has been made operational from 1-4-1999 to facilitate the modernisation and upgradation of the sector.
ii) To improve the productivity and quality of cotton, Government has launched Technology Mission on Cotton (TMC). The mission comprises four mini-missions, which are being jointly implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Textiles. One of the important ingredients of the Mission is to improve cotton processing facilities by upgrading/modernizing the existing ginning and pressing facilities and setting up of new market yards/improvement of existing market yards.
iii) The Government has launched a centrally sponsored scheme titled “Apparel Park for Export Scheme†for imparting focused thrust for setting up of apparel manufacturing units of international standards at potential growth centres to give fillip to exports.
iv) For upgrading infrastructure facilities at important textile centres, a scheme titled “Textile Centre Infrastructure Development Scheme†(TCIDS) has been launched.
v) The fiscal duty structure has been generally rationalised to achieve growth and maximum value addition within the country. Except for mandatory excise duty on man-made filament yarns and man-made staple fibres, the whole value addition chain has been given excise exemption option.
vi) The imports of specified textiles and garment machinery items has been allowed at concessional rate of customs duty to encourage investments and to make our textile products competitive in the global market. The cost of machinery has also been reduced through fiscal policy measures.
vii) Duty-free imports of 21 items of trimmings and embellishment items are allowed to the garment exporters, upto 3% of their actual export performance during the previous year.
viii) National Institute for Fashion Technology (NIFT), its seven branches are running various courses/programmes to meet the skilled manpower requirements of textile industry especially apparel in the field of design, merchandising and marketing.
ix) Facilities by way of eco-testing laboratories have been created to enable exporters to get the garments/textiles pre-tested for conforming to the requirements of importing countries.
x) The Government has de-reserved the readymade garments, hosiery and knitwear from the SSI sector.