On the occasion of completing three years of Modi Government, Smriti Irani, Union Minister of Textiles, held the first ever official meet of the Ministry and media in New Delhi. In an hour-long briefing, the Minister touched each and every aspect of the Indian textile industry and highlighted the Government’s journey and achievements of three years. She highlighted that a ‘Special Package’ of Rs. 6,000 crore which was announced last year in June, has so far approved an investment worth Rs. 3,000 crore for the apparel segment. She stated that apart from creating a positive impact, this package led to an increase in the Indian apparel exports by 4.7 per cent during the period, from July 2016 to February 2017.
Apparel Online raised the question of how far MoT can complete its target in the next two years by attracting investments of US $ 11 billion (Rs. 74,000 crore) in the next three years and generating US $ 30 billion in exports, with the development of more than one crore new jobs.
The minister replied, “The administrative’s tasks to make the announcements possible on the ground level take a lot of time; but the investment of Rs. 3,000 crore shows that the administrative things which we need to notify, have been done on time. One of the hallmarks of this package is that whenever the industry faces any challenge regarding this package, they find a solution with Office of the Textiles Commissioner or with MoT. We do help the industry along with communicating to the states. Textiles India 2017 is a first initiative of its kind to boost international investment in Indian textile industry. I feel the entire value chain of the Indian textile industry will be under one roof in this event along with 17 ministries, and the opportunities are much higher. Textile consumer is fragmented and rather than looking at it just from apparel point of view, see it from the perspective of the entire chain including technical textiles, its requirement in 100 smart cities, etc. The data we shared is just of the apparel sector because till 2004, Office of the Textiles Commissioner made it a point to collect data for the entire textile value chain. But after 2004, it was stopped and we notified it after 13 years that Office of the Textiles Commissioner will now collect information of the entire value chain and will share in the public domain.”
MoT’s press conference: Five main points
1. MoT will soon announce a ‘big package’ for knitwear industry.
2. Under the ‘Special Package’, an investment of around Rs. 3,000 crore has been approved so far.
3. MoT had a meeting with the Indian Army Chief also to see how MoT can increase opportunity to meet Army’s needs.
4. Rs. 5,800 crore subsidies have been given to the industry in past three years under Amended TUFS.
5. Office of the Textile Commissioner has become pro-active in recent years with push from MoT.
She further said under the Pradhan Mantri Paridhan Rojgar Protsahan Yojana, over 1.4 lakh new workers have registered themselves for provident fund and it is an industry norm that along with 1 direct job, there are 2.3 new jobs generated. It means this has figure of more than 3 lakh job generation. The minister claimed that Rs. 1,900 crore duty drawback/ROSL has been already given to the textile and apparel industry to increase its export by further investment.
On the issue of violation of norms by some special purpose vehicles operating in textile parks and a report commissioned by the textiles ministry concluding that the Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks (SITP) has failed to achieve its objectives, she said if violations come to light, the Office of the Textiles Commissioner takes positive or punitive steps to ensure that there is no anomaly or transgression. The minister informed that funds to the tune of over Rs 1,900 crore have been given to the apparel industry under the rebate of state levies to boost exports from the sector.
Exporters feel that direct compensation and incentives like increased rate of duty drawback and discounted credit rates would be more helpful.
Irani also stressed on the upcoming Textiles India 2017 fair and averred that this ‘Historic’ event will be able to fetch lot of investment for the textile industry. Around 25 countries will take part in this mega event. Roadshows have been held in six countries including the UK, US, China, Russia, South Korea and UAE to attract the industry and potential investors. She assured the industry that National Textile Policy will be put in public domain as well before finalization, though she did not give any indication on when it will be rolled out.
Highlighting the efforts of the Textile Commissioner’s office, the minister said that the entire system of taking subsidy is now online and fully transparent. Functioning of garment manufacturing centres in all states of North East (apart from Sikkim), PowerTex India scheme, increase in silk and sericulture production, starting of 13 jute mills’ were some of the main focus points in the brief given by the minister. The Minister added that whatever announcements related to the textile industry were made by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, MoT has executed them on ground.
Bharat Tex Special Report 2026 
