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The Textile Magazine
DECEMBER 2011
Financial support for weavers to
tackle industry slowdown
textile scene
As part of the handloom package,
the Government has announced a
six-fold strategy to offer financial
support to handloom weavers. Un-
der the scheme, weavers will be eli-
gible to margin money assistance of
Rs. 4,200-5,400 per head and inter-
est subsidy of three per cent on loans
for a period of three years. Credit
cards will be issued to eligible in-
dividual weavers to enable them
to access loans upto Rs. 2 lakhs in
a period of three years without any
collateral security.
The Government has convened
stakeholders’ meetings at ministe-
rial level to assess the slowdown in
the industry. The Cotton Advisory
Board (CAB) and the Cotton Yarn
Advisory Board (CYAB) meetings
held on November 15 assessed do-
mestic mill consump-
tion of cotton for 2011-
12 at 210 lakh bales,
down from 240 lakh
bales, and cotton yarn
production down from
3,900 million kg to
3,200 million kg, indi-
cating the slowdown in
the textiles industry.
The Government is
also considering the
industry representation
for a moratorium on loans for capi-
tal intensive requests and special re-
laxation in RBI’s prudential norms
to avoid asset reclassification or ad-
ditional provisioning to address the
industry slowdown.
Exports
The textile industry is one of
the most labour intensive sectors
spreading over the hand-spun and
hank-woven sector at one end of the
spectrum and the capital intensive
sophisticated mill sector at the oth-
er. The textile sector provides direct
employment to over 35 million peo-
ple. Exports being made by the sec-
tor have a key role in the economy.
During 2008-09, 2009-10 and
2010-11 the foreign capital earnings
by this sector were valued at $21.23
billion, $22.42 billion and $26.83
billion respectively. The share of
exports of textile & clothing items
(including coir & coir manufactur-
ers and jute) in the total export value
of the economy was 11.46 per cent,
12.54 per cent and 10.63 per cent for
2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11.
As per the latest provisional figure
released by DGCI&S, the share of
export of textile & clothing items in
the total export value was 9.28 per
cent for April-July 2011.
w
Rank in cotton exports
Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh are the major cotton pro-
ducing States in India. Production in the three major States in the last
three years was as follows:
Indian cotton exports amounted to 35 lakh bales in 2008-09, 83 lakh
bales in 2009-10 and 70 lakh bales in 2010-11. India is the second larg-
est cotton exporter in the world after the US. With a view to increasing
exports from the country, the Government has placed cotton exports
under OGL without any quantitative restrictions.
(Quantity in lakh bales of 170 kg each)
Name of the State
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
Gujarat
90
98
103
Maharashtra
62
65
82
Andhra Pradesh
53
54
53