The Union Cabinet is expected to approve four key components of the Integrated Programme for the textile sector announced in the Union Budget in the next two months, Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh said on Thursday, as the government moves to provide funding and operational clarity to the new schemes.
“In one or two months our entire scheme will be approved by the Cabinet,” Singh said at a Textile Conclave organised by Laghu Udyog Bharati (LUB), a grassroots organisation representing micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the Integrated Programme for the labour-intensive textile sector in her 2026-27 Budget speech. The programme comprises five sub-components, requiring individual Cabinet approvals for resource allocation and finalisation of operational details.
The National Fibre Scheme (NFS) will promote self-reliance in natural, man-made and new-age fibres, while providing an umbrella framework for existing programmes such as the textile PLI scheme and Kasturi Cotton Bharat.
The Textile Expansion and Employment Scheme (TEEM) will support modernisation of traditional textile clusters through machinery and technology upgrades and common testing and certification facilities.
The Tex-Eco Initiative will focus on making Indian textiles and apparel globally competitive and sustainable, while Samarth 2.0 will upgrade the sector’s skilling ecosystem through greater industry and academic collaboration.
Singh also said India would soon begin domestic production of industrial stitching machines, which are currently largely imported.
“A Taiwanese company is putting up a facility near Coimbatore which will start production soon,” he said, signalling an effort to deepen domestic manufacturing capabilities in textile machinery.
The minister said the textiles ministry had also held discussions with the Department of Financial Services to improve credit availability for the sector. “After the meetings credit flow to the units in the sector has started to improve gradually,” he said.
The government is seeking to use the new programme and other policy measures to significantly expand India’s textile and apparel industry as part of its broader Viksit Bharat @2047 strategy.
According to the ministry’s roadmap, the industry is targeted to grow from its current estimated size of around $190 billion to $350 billion by 2030 and eventually to $2.4 trillion by 2047. Textile exports are targeted to rise from around $40 billion currently to $100 billion by 2030 and $600 billion by 2047.