The representative body for the spinning industry in south has already chalked out a long-term and short-term goals to be pursued by it. With the Technology Upgradation Fund (TUF) for the textile industry finding its pace and a new textile policy on the anvil, it is now Sima's turn to restructure and re-orient itself. In an exclusive interview with The Financial Express, Ramaswami talked at length about the tasks ahead. Excerpts:

On the spinning industry's current performance
Things are not as bad as they were. People are able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The industry is doing good and we expect to do better, maybe ayear or two later. There has been some improvement in yarn offtake in the domestic market. But the increase in diesel prices would hit us badly.

On the current cotton scenario
The cotton scenario is very bright. It will be still better if the government doesn't heckle around. If they talk about liberalisation and free economy, then they should not support the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) and the Maharashtra Federation. Why should there be separate laws? We are not against cotton exports. If the farmer can get a better price, so be it.

But Sima has objected to cotton exports i the past...
We had objected only to announcements being made on cotton exports at the beginning of the season. This results in artificial inflation of prices. Global prices of cotton are coming down every day. Moreover, quality of cotton imported is better than our contaminated cotton. The Industry is also to be blamed for the high contamination level in this commodity. The farmers does not get a remunerativeprice for contamination-free cotton. Yes, we understand the problems of farmers too. Sima and Indian Cotton Mills Federation (ICMF) will aggressively look into it. In south, we expect the problem to be tackled by the new council (State Cotton Council recently formed to improve productivity, production and quality of cotton in Tamil Nadu). Ravichandran, a former chairman of Sima's cotton research wing will oversee the research and field level trials being carried out in northern states by ICMF's cotton research wing. We should improve our productivity levels.

On the industry's appeals to both central and state governments
We expect a substantial co-operation from the government, especially on the power front. We had a preliminary discussion with the electricity board chairman. Any further increase in power charges would cripple us and hence we should be exempted. We are also moving a proposal to allow us to form a co-operative society so that we can have captive generation. We don't need anysubsidies too.

Currently, the textile industry is the most affected because of the cross-subsidising policies of the government. We bear the brunt of populist policies for the cotton farmer and handloom industry, apart from other burdens like those on account of free power to a section. For instance take the auto, IT, tea or any other industries in the country, nowhere would you see so much of cross-subsidisation.

Technology Upgradation Fund (TUF) is subsidised out of the funds we pay as Textile Committee Cess. The subsidy is comes from our industry. Similar funds in the case of jute industry goes back to jute research. Money collected from us should be given back to us for development of the industry.The Market Committee Cess is another burden on the industry to support other segments. If they give us this cess, we will do marketing better and cotton contamination can be brought down by establishing good warehouses. Given a level playing field, we will prove that we are the best in the world.

We arein the process of preparing a paper on exactly how much subsidy we (spinning industry) are providing. This will be presented to the government. The money has to be re-oriented and given back to us in some form.

On cotton yarn exports
Cotton yarn exports are good, but margins are low. The competition is from within our own country. We undercut each other. We can compete with the best in the world. Things will further improve once we join hands and consolidate our operations. Sima is working on this.