India has to its credit several notable achievements such as its competence to be one among the first Asian economies to wriggle out of the worst-ever global recession of 2008 and Delhi being recognised the world’s second most popular city. Another feather in its cap, the latest one at that, is that India has improved its ranking from the fourth to the second position as a world textile power, as per the data released by “UN Comtrade”. In fact, India attained this status by overtaking competitors like Italy, Germany and Bangladesh, while China retained its No.1 slot. Currently, India’s textile exports to the world market are estimated at $40.2 billion. This increase is indeed phenomenal considering the fact that the global textile growth during the year was only 4.7 per cent compared to India which registered a growth of 23 per cent, beating China and Bangladesh which reported a jump of 11.4 per cent and 15 per cent respectively. Further, India’s share in global textile exports is significantly high at 5.2 per cent and in apparel exports 3.7 per cent. According to Textile Ministry sources, textile and clothing exports are set to touch the $50-billion mark in the current financial year.
In order to give a further fillip to the textile industry growth and to encourage apparel exports, duty-free entitlement of import of trimmings, embellishments and other specified items used by exporters has been raised to three-five per cent of the value of exports in the maiden Budget announced by the Modi-led BJP Government. Additionally the efficiency of handling and transporting import and export cargo will be improved as textiles contribute about 11 per cent of India’s total exports. The other major attraction offered by the Budget is the setting up of six textile clusters at an outlay of Rs. 2 billion ($34 million). This would positively attract more investments into the sector. The industry is also likely to benefit a lot with the Government’s move to simplify the TUFS for which it proposes to allot Rs. 2,500 crores this fiscal.
To sustain the growth in production and exports during the next 10 years, it is absolutely essential to formulate a comprehensive new textile policy, taking into consideration the growing requirements of spinning, weaving, handloom and powerloom sectors, particularly in view of the growing threat to India’s exports from its Asian rivals.