Going by the unprecedented Indian and overseas response for it, the ninth India ITME 2012 being held at the Bombay Convention & Exhibition Centre during December 2-7 is sure to set fresh records of sorts as a prominent world textile engineering event.
It has already to its credit the distinction of having attracted the highest number so far of 810 exhibitors from 42 countries, with the number of trade visitors expected to exceed the one lakh-mark.
The ever-growing popularity of this Mumbai expo, held once in four years, necessitated this time closure of space booking one year ahead. Taken as a precautionary measure, this provided the organisers enough time to offer the best of amenities to those participants who registered themselves well in advance, and helped avoid last-minute organisational hitches. The point to note in this context is the major shift in focus by European textile machinery manufacturers to the emerging Asian region where the textile industry has registered exceptional growth, particularly in countries like India and China.
India ITME is well recognised as an attractive platform for both Indian and international industry majors to present their latest technological developments and processes catering to the changing customer demand worldwide. The series of programmes includes as usual technical seminars, product launches, special branding and product promotion meets, etc. There will be detailed discussions on meeting the business requirements of textile machinery accessories and components manufacturers, distributors, exporters & importers, as well as buyers & sellers. Textile engineers, fashion & textile designers, R&D organisations, textile parts and SEZs will largely benefit from the overall proceedings at the six-day event. Business transactions among Indian and overseas parties will hopefully be on a much larger scale than hitherto.
Of special significance as far as the Indian machinery industry is concerned is the top priority accorded for modernisation and technological upgradation needed not only to increase the output volume and reduce the production, maintenance and power cost but to enable the industry to successfully compete with its Asian rivals like China, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and Thailand in export markets. Though suspended for some time, the Government decision to extend TUFS during the 12th Plan with a higher allocation of Rs. 15,886 crores against Rs. 11,000 crores earmarked in the 11th Plan is most welcome as it will give a further fillip to the growth of the Indian textile machinery sector as a whole.