The new government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stressed an economic vision based on increasing production, export and generating employment by giving particular attention to offering employment opportunities for the youth, inclusive and participative growth, skill, scale and speed, Make-in-India brand, Zero defect – Zero Effect (on environment), and Adarsh Gram.
India’s textiles and clothing industry is one of the mainstays of the national economy. It is also one of the largest contributing sectors of India’s exports contributing nearly 13.25 per cent of the total export basket. The textile industry, which is labour intensive and is one of the largest employers, has realized export earnings worth of $41.57 billion in 2013-14.
The textile industry has two broad segments, namely, handloom, handicrafts, sericulture, powerlooms in the unorganized sector and spinning, apparel, garmenting and made-ups in the organised sector.
The new Government has taken many initiatives for the development of the textiles sector. Some of the major initiatives are as follows:
Setting up integrated textile parks
The Scheme of Integrated Textile Parks is one of the flagship projects of the Ministry of Textiles. It aims to assist small and medium entrepreneurs in the textile industry to clusterize investments in textile parks by providing financial support for world-class infrastructure in the parks.
The implementation of the scheme was held up during the last one year due to administrative bottlenecks, and no sanction was given for new parks. The new government moved swiftly to resolve the issues, and 13 new textile parks were approved by the Project Approval Committee (PAC) chaired by the Minister of State for Textiles (independent Charge), Mr. Santosh Kumar Gangwar. While these parks will receive a grant to the extent of Rs. 520 crores from the government for infrastructure development, they are estimated to bring in private sector investment of about Rs. 3,240 crores into the sector and generate direct employment for about 35,000 persons over the next three years.
Exports
With a vision to create an export-friendly economy, the government has introduced several new initiatives:
• Duty-free entitlement to garment exporters for import of trimmings, embellishments and other specified items increased from three per cent to five per cent. This initiative is expected to generate an additional RMG exports estimated at Rs. 10,000 crores.
• The government has also proposed to extend 24/7 customs clearance facility at 13 airports and 14 sea ports, resulting in faster clearance of import and export cargo.
• The proposal for imposing duty on branded items was dropped providing relief to the entire value chain.
Handloom development
Specific steps have been initiated for revival of the handloom industry based on its inherent strength for production of high value items. Focus is on assisting weavers with designs, marketing and improved wages. The National Institute of Fashion Technology and leading members of the fashion industry have been roped in for design support to weavers. At the same time, equipment and raw material for producing clothes for the high end customers and niche market are also being provided. Higher wage coming from high value production and reducing level of transactions in marketing would enhance handloom weavers’ wages substantially.
In order to provide better marketing reach, the Ministry has launched the E-commerce initiative Flipkart. This will strengthen the existing primary weaver co-operative society by the assisting entrepreneur from the weavers families for taking up production and supply directly to the customers.
A Trade Facilitation Centre and Craft Museum for Varanasi has been approved in the Budget for 2014-15 to develop and promote the handloom, handicraft and silk products of Varanasi and to provide necessary help to weavers, artisans and entrepreneurs of the region for boosting their marketing activities in the domestic as well as international markets.
The Ministry of Urban Development has allotted 8.18 acres of land at Bada Lalpur, Varanasi. The Prime Minister laid the foundation-stone on November 7, 2014, for the Trade Facilitation Centre & Craft Museum. A trade facilitation centre at Srinagar with a total budget cost of Rs. 12.30 crores was also approved by the Government under the comprehensive handicrafts Cluster Development Scheme (CHCDS) in 2010. J&K (Sales & Exports) Corporation, Srinagar, has been identified as the implementing agency for the said project as per the scheme guidelines.
Synergy of handloom and handicraft with tourism has been worked out in consultation with the Ministry of Tourism. The State Chief Secretaries have been asked to identify traditional handloom weavers/handicraft artisan villages for development as “Adarsh Gram” as tourists destination.
Development of Tassar handloom products like sarees, dress material and a wide range of home furnishing fabric for exports typical to Bhagalpur in Bihar has been initiated under the Handloom Mega Cluster Scheme. Another mega cluster is being developed at Trichy in Tamil Nadu. Over 15,000 handloom weavers will be directly benefited under each of these two clusters. The remaining new mega clusters at Surat, Bareilly, Lucknow, Kutch and Mysore announced in the Budget are at various stages of implementation.
Handicraft
Promotion of major crafts of Varanasi, namely, wood carving, carpet and durry weaving, meenakari and zardozi and pottery, etc., have been taken up by providing assistance to the artisans with better skill, design and supply of toolkits, etc. This was formally launched by the Textiles Minister on September 26 last.
A Skill Development Programme for training 5000 carpet weavers has been taken up through the Carpet Export Promotion Council (CEPC).
Silk and Pashmina
India is the second largest producer of silk in the world and employs a large number of skilled and unskilled tribal women. During his recent visit to Jammu & Kashmir the Prime minister declared a scheme for the development of nomads.
A provision of Rs. 30 crores for same was made in the 2014-15 Budget, which would be utilized for promotion of Pashmina in Leh, Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, setting up a dehairing plant in Ladakh to increase productivity, and for setting up solar-powered community centers, sheds for animals and pucca shelters for nomads.
Further, with a vision to encourage and train the youth of Jammu and Kashmir for fashion design and thereby generate employment opportunities, the Government has enhanced its financial support for setting up the NIFT center from 50 per cent to 90 per cent.