Dear Readers,
The last few years have been a roller coaster ride for the Indian Textile Industry. After achieving the highest-ever exports of US$ 43.4 Bn in 2021-22, Indian T&A exports stood at about US$ 34.4 bn in 2023-24 which was about 3.24% lower to what was achieved in 2022-23. With a new financial year as also next five years before us, the industry is working towards understanding the endemic issues and looking for workable strategies for the next decade. To have a coordinated and collaborative value chain approach for this, CITI organized the meeting of the National Committee on Textile & Clothing (NCTC) on the sidelines of the Bharat Tex 2024. Such consultations with the entire value chain are expected to continue so that the vision for Amrit Kaal is one of value driven growth with each segment complimenting growth of the downstream segments.
In order to encourage and recognize the commendable efforts of the Indian textile sector towards adopting Sustainable, Circular, and Traceable practices, CITI also organized the 2nd edition of the CITI Textile Sustainability Awards during Bharat Tex 2024 which saw active participation from the industry. The award applications demonstrated good interest and initiative of the industry for impactful work on energy optimisation , better material management, closing the loop and community engagement. Segments like rag pickers and micro recyclers are important component of the sustainable value chain ,which were also targeted this time. Women, as important changemakers were given recognition. Overall, the awards could innovative practices being adopted by the industry across the various categories. I am sure that this initiative of CITI will help the industry to chart out a more aggressive path with both the planet and people at the centre of all the activities.
To further facilitate the industry in catering to the growing requirements on various social and environmental compliance requirements and proper disclosure formats to report on the same, CITI has signed an MoU with Fair Wear Foundation (FWF), which is a leading organization dedicated to promoting ethical practices through better stakeholderengagement and improving supplier voices in the discussions on due diligences. This MoU is aimed at capacity building in this area as also improving industry action through more information and validation to enable impactful due diligence action and reporting.
I am delighted to inform you all that after successfully participating in SAMARTH scheme for skill training, CITI is now collaborating with Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) to implement the skill development training program in various districts of Andhra Pradesh.We request our members to take benefit of this scheme by nominating their training infrastructure available to be affiliated under the scheme.
We have also concluded the first year of the Special Project on Cotton 2023-24 (joint initiatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Textiles). While official results are awaited from Government, the CITI-CDRA achieved a noteworthy increase in yield in its area; 22.5% under High Density Plantation in Maharashtra, 24% in Closer Spacing in Rajasthan, and an 8% in improvement ELS varieties in MP. I do hope that the good practices being followed under the project will result in a cascading effect in years to come and a significant impact on India’s overall yield will be there.
This year, we witnessed the interim budget announced by the Hon’ble Union Finance Minister, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman. Though any major announcement was missing in the budget, however, certain policy measures soon after the budget, like the extension of RoSCTL for 2 years, Extension of RoDTEP scheme up to 30th September 2024, and inclusion of AA holders, SEZ and EoU units for same, Removal of Import Duty from Extra Long Staple (ELS) cotton, provisions for exempting inputsimported byAA, EOU, and SEZ units from mandatoryQCOs which have been announced by the Ministry of Textiles, Ministry of Steel, and DPIIT, etc. are commendable and these will catalyse the growth of Indian T&A industry, especially the exports of textile & apparel products. All these policy measures will not only help the industry in achieving the target of US$ 350 bn market size by 2030 but will also lay a strong foundation towards achieving the ambitious milestone of domestic market size of US$ 1800 bn and exports of US$ 600 bn by 2047.
