New Delhi, Thursday, January 17, 2019: Mr. Sanjay Jain, Chairman, Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) thanked the Government of India for notifying 207 HSN Codes as Technical Textiles. It was a long standing demand by the industry and this step will give a major boost to the Technical Textiles Sector which is considered as the Sunrise Sector.

Mr. Sanjay Jain pointed out that technical textiles provides new opportunities to the Indian Textile industry to have long term sustainable future. They are not limited to Chapters 50 to 63 of HSN Codes pertaining to conventional textiles, but are covered under the HSN Codes spread over Chapter 1 to 99. In order to compile the data on export and import and also provide fiscal support, it was necessary to identify the HSN Codes of all the technical textile items. He further stated that the absence of clear classification of Technical textiles was creating confusion and many genuine manufacturers were not getting various incentives and subsidies being allowed to Technical Textiles. This was impacting investment in the fast growing and sunrise segment of Textiles. Mr Jain is confident that this policy intervention will help the industry to invest increasingly in this sector and enable the growth of the Indian Textile Industry.

CITI Chairman also elaborated that Technical Textiles are very significant for the growth of the Textile Industry as they are value added textile products that are manufactured primarily for technical performance and multi-functional properties with less intent on aesthetics & design. The diverse range of technical textiles in India can be broadly grouped into 12 categories, such as Agrotech, Meditech, Packtech, Clothtech, Indutech, Hometech, Geotech, Oekotech, Protech, Sportstech, Buildtech and Mobitech. All these sectors are expected to see a double digit growth.

Mr. Jain highlighted that there is an immense opportunity in technical textiles sector. As per the Baseline Survey of Technical Textile Industry carried out by Ministry of Textiles, the Technical Textiles industry in India was estimated at Rs.1,16,217 crore in 2017-18.  It is estimated that the domestic market is likely to reach at Rs. 2,00,823 crore by 2020-21 with CAGR of 20%. The demand for this sector is rising due to many factors including rapid urbanization, advances in medical technology, expansion in construction sectors, awareness on safety and environmentalism and increased spending on healthcare.

However, he said that India still has a long way to go as it currently lacks the ability to domestically fulfil the rising demand and to be globally competitive in this sector. There is untapped potential both in exports and domestic market of technical textiles. Mr. Jain said that to make Indian technical textiles Industry globally competitive, dual policy needs to be adopted for exports as well as domestic markets. A proactive approach from Government as well as industry stakeholders will be the key for Indian technical textiles to realize its full potential. One of the key steps that may be taken by the Government is to establish regulatory norms for mandatory usage of technical textile items in specific industries to increase consumption. Apart from that, focus on bringing foreign direct investment in order to get the requisite technical know-how and expertise would be crucial.