India’s technical textile industry will be worth $12-15 billion by 2012, which will be 12% of the global value. Consumption of non-wovens and technical textiles in India is also expected to grow from 100 gm now to 250 gm in 2012, in tune with the GDP growth. These would be possible with the implementation of the various programmes under the national mission on technical textiles and large-scale national and foreign direct investments.
The national mission to promote technical textiles has a budget support of over Rs 1,600 crore ($170 million) for the next five years. The main aim of the mission is to grow the current technical textile industry to a size of around $12-15 billion by 2012.
The mission is divided into four mini-missions, which will focus on creating awareness, human resource development, capacity building of the non-woven technical textile industry base, and the related machinery industry base, establishing centres for research excellence and support with testing and standardisation.
The mission spans the entire spectrum of the technical textiles industry and focusses on those areas, which will aid the growth of the industry.
The government has identified four important sectors within the technical textile industry for immediate attention and growth. They are: meditech, geotech, agrotech, and protech (protective textiles).
Besides the mission mode programmes, support is available for investors from the Technology Upgradation Fund scheme. There is a 5% cut in the basic customs duty on imported non-woven and technical textile machinery.
In a study tilted, ‘India rising: Opportunities in non-wovens and technical textiles’, Seshadri Ramkumar and Appachi Arunachalam of the Texas Technical University, Texas say that the period between 2010 and 2035 will be crucial for the technical textile sector in India. The country will provide ample opportunities for both international and domestic players with a growth rate of 15% a year.
They say that the per capita consumption of non-wovens would reach 3-3.5 kg, the current level in the US and Western Europe, by 2035. “India’s non-woven and technical textile industry is highly fragmented and is in the embryonic stage. The industry is poised to have a double digit growth of around 13-15% a year in the next two decades, leading up to a developed stage in 2035,” the study says.
As the industry is set to grow rapidly with support from both public and private sectors, Texas Tech University in association with major stakeholders is bringing leading scientists and industrialists from many parts of the world in one platform for the 5th edition of ‘Advances in textiles, non-woven and technical textiles (ATNT 2008) in Coimbatore during July 14-16, 2008, Sehsadri said.
It will focus on cutting-edge research and marketing papers spanning the entire segment of the textile industry, from fibre to finish, non-woven, technical textiles to marketing and economics.