New Delhi, Thursday, February 20, 2020: The Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, under the dynamic leadership of Hon’ble Union Minister of Textiles, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, is in the process of formulating the new Textile Policy and it is likely to be announced in 2020. The Ministry has been conducting series of meetings for each segment and is in the process of drafting the Policy with a sole objective of making Indian textile industry a true global leader by improving its competitiveness, bridging the technology gap, encouraging sustainability and creating global brands for Indian textile and clothing products. In this endeavor, the Ministry of Textiles has started a bold initiative of mitigating the major challenge of Scale of Operation through the proposed Mega Textile Parks. In this connection, Secretary (Textiles), Shri Ravi Capoor convened a meeting with the industry stakeholders and the senior officials of various State Governments on 17.02.2020 and gathered necessary inputs to frame the scheme.

Mr. T. Rajkumar, Chairman, Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) thanked the Hon’ble Union Minister of Textiles and Secretary (Textiles) and appreciated the unique initiative of the Ministry of Textiles for encouraging Scale of Operation through Mega Textile Parks Scheme. He stated that the flagship programme of TUF Scheme had attracted over Rs.4 lakh crores during the last two decades, the Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks, enabled the Powerloom Sector and a few other decentralized sectors to consolidate in different clusters and go for modern technology. In addition to this, a few large players also could take advantage of SITP.

Chairman CITI pointed out that the country has been suffering with the issue of Scale of Operation and the new entrants like Bangladesh, Vietnam, etc., grabbed the space vacated by China due to Scale of Operation and cost competitiveness. He further stated that at the global brands meeting chaired by the Hon’ble Union Minister of Textiles, most of the brands having retails in India, had stated that they had to import from countries like China, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka due to volume and cost advantage as India does not have large players to meet their demands.

Mr. Rajkumar also stated that the Central Government is making concerted efforts to attract FDI, joint venture projects and also encouraging large vertically integrated textile giants in the country to make investments in the proposed Mega Textile Parks by setting up large scale vertically integrated textile manufacturing units. He further stated that the Government is contemplating to extend maximum support for the infrastructure facilities including land by the State Governments, water, power, road connectivity, special priority in the port, relaxation in labour laws, etc., and the Government is planning to market the Scheme in different countries to attract FDI and joint venture projects jointly with the State Governments. CITI Chairman concluded by saying that he is very optimistic that the proposed Mega Textile Parks Scheme would throw more opportunities for the textile industry to cater to domestic as well as international markets.