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National Fibre Policy - All Expectations...

New national Fibre Policy is very much in the offing and that is expected to give a big push to the age-old T extile Industry having all the chances of flourishing again on the national and international fields. The Union T extile Ministry has set up a Working Group under T extile Secretary, Mrs. Rita Menon to do the job.

As per the impression given recently by the Union T extile Minister Mr . Dayanithi Maran, in the new policy, the short term strategy would be to strive for rationalizing fiscal structure, exempt industry from service tax, reduce interest rates on pre and post shipment credit and facilitate faster clearance of arears of terminal excise duty and Central Sales T ax (CST). As part of medium term strategy, the intention is to impart momentum to implementation of T echnology Upgradation Scheme (TUF), Scheme for Integrated T extile Parks (SITP) and T echnology Mission on Cotton (TMC) in the 11th Five Year Plan. In the long run, there is a need for improvement in infrastructure and labour law reforms, and for a new business orientation by the industry in line with global trends.

Our major markets for textiles and clothing are US and European Union, which are slowly coming out from the grip of severe financial crisis. But what we do need now is to make all efforts to diversify textile and clothing exports to new markets like Gulf Co-operation Countries (GCC), Behrain, Kuwait, Oman, Quatar & UAE, Africa, Latin America, Russia etc. This sort of diversion is not at all easy. The government is supposed to extend helping hand to the industry to seek opportunities in new markets, to withstand competition from neighbouring countries and to overcome protectionist measures being adapted by the developed countries.

The major blessing to the textile industry is in the form of TUFS (T extile Upgradation Fund Scheme). Under the scheme, the government subsidises new machinery and equipments for textile companies. The Budget for 2009-10, has allocated Rs.3140 crores for the scheme, which has mostly been exhausted by now. Under SITP , 40 integrated textile parks of international standards, covering weaving, knitting, processing and garmenting sectors with project proposals worth Rs.4199 crore (of which, assistance from government is Rs.1438 crore) have been sanctioned. Four Textile Parks were already inaugurated last year and many more are coming up. When we look forward to 2010 and beyond, apart from Technical Textiles, we can visualize the emergence of E-T extile sector as an established business sector because the next phase of evolution is expected to be as a period of collaboration, consolidation and partnering, which will lead to further innovations and market growth.

Looking to the prospects of the textile industry, top experts in the field emphasize that the real need today is to look for more and more research and innovations, especially in the efforts for product diversification and marketing. The industry needs serious efforts to get into new product lines. The government needs to address the issues of raw material costs and interest burden and proper compensation to exporters for duties and for deficiencies in infrastructure. Markets are on way to recovery from the slow down. T extile industry is sure looking for better future. Of course, certain issues are there, and they have to be addressed with all the urgency and seriousness. All expectations are there in the proposed New Fibre Policy.

Here, we provide excellent opportunity in ‘Texcellence'09’, where every important aspect of the textiles industry will be discussed by all the `tops' of the industry. They will deliberate and guide on global challenges and future opportunities, innovation and productivity, technical and home textiles, industrial textiles, designing, branding, marketing and development of textile machinery... every thing... All the things on Textiles...