The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) have joined hands to meet the growing shortage of manpower in the textile sector.
Under the initiative, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) christened APPTEX Manpower Development Services Ltd has been created with an initial investment of Rs 30 lakh. CITI has taken 15% equity in the new venture.
?Primarily, the company will set up training facilities to churn out skilled manpower pool to meet the demand for human resource for the diversified products in the export and domestic market, the secretary general, CITI, DK Nair told FE. The centres will be set up in Special Economic Zones (SEZ?s) being developed by IL&FS for the textile and clothing segments in various states.
The respective state governments and industry will also approached to extend financial assistance in the efforts, Nair added. The syllabus will mainly focus on latest technology software designing and CAD structure. Fabric development and creating an understanding off global trends in the apparel industry have been identified as other areas.
This forms part of the government?s National Skill Development Programme, Wherein a corporation was established with an initial investment of Rs 1,000 crore for training workers. National Industry chambers and industry organisations representing a few selected sectors have been offered equity of Rs 51 lakh each in the corporation.CITI was offered equity on behalf of the textile and clothing industry. ?A representative of CITI will be included as member of the board in case of both the organisations in which we have taken equity. We need to ensure that this outfit is able to meet out training requirements during the years to come??, Nair said.
It may be noted that the textile sector with its present workforce of 35 million will by 2011 require an additional 12 million workers, which include 5 million skilled workers as it has set an export target of $ 50 billion during the next five year plan.