The long-awaited National Textile Policy is in its final stage, and is expected to be issued before the end of April 2016. This was revealed by Textile Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar, while interacting with media persons after participating in the Make in India Seminar at Mumbai’s ongoing Make in India Week.

Gangwar is confident that the new textile policy would be released during the budget session of the Lok Sabha.

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The minister spoke at length about the various ongoing issues of the Indian textile industry, throwing light on the textile policy that is to be released soon. He said that area-specific schemes have been formulated for the entire textile value chain, and that the government has laid specific focus on reducing transportation cost, as a result of which the cotton seed transport cost has come down by almost 25 to 40 per cent.

Elaborating on the Regional Trade Block Agreements such as Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), Gangwar said that the Government is working towards Foreign Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union, and is holding comprehensive discussions on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). He further emphasized that the government is also reviewing existing trade agreements such as Indo-ASEAN FTA and Indo-Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

The New Textile Policy, which aims to create 35 million new jobs and boost exports to over $300 billion annually over the next decade, was sent for Cabinet approval in January 2016.