It has often been said that textiles in India is a sunrise industry offering the largest employment, next in order only to agriculture. Though this was the case till around 1990s, the industry started losing its sheen and soon became a sunset sector. Even in areas like spinning where India used to be a dominant player in the world market till a few years ago, it is now yielding place to neighbouring countries such as China, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The main factors impacting the growth of the Indian industry are shortage of skilled labour, frequent power cuts, non-adherence to environmental norms, etc. All this has rendered textiles a non-priority sector with the least focus on it from the Textile Ministry.
Though the Indian industry, with its traditional strength and competence, is one of the major exporters of clothing and finished garments, it has to still depend on import of high-technology machineries, particularly for weaving, dyeing & processing, knitting, etc. The industry is currently witnessing some expansion within the existing players. Still, flow of fresh foreign investments is much limited owing to Government policy uncertainties. However, the only redeeming feature of an otherwise unencouraging scenario is the recent signing of MoUs by the Tamil Nadu Government with different parties to give a big boost to textile output expansion as well as provision of more funds for cotton cultivation in the State. As a result, Tamil Nadu can be expected to be in for a major transformation in the textile sector.
With the new Government to be installed at the Centre after the Lok Sabha elections, expectations among industry circles are much higher indeed. The general feeling is that Indian textiles will regain its status as the sunrise industry with full Government policy backing. Wait and watch.