The growth of Technical Textiles in India has gained momentum in the past five years

The time had come time to target a five-time increase in technical textile exports in the next three years, Union Minister of Textiles Piyush Goyal said on Friday.

He stressed on the need to align with the best standards in textile manufacturing and said there should be no difference in quality of textile meant for international and domestic consumers.

Speaking to representatives of Indian Technical Textile Association (ITTA) in Delhi, the Minister suggested public private participation in use of government funds in Research & Development in technical textiles.

He added that the Centre would support PLIs for the textile sector in states supporting development and offering affordable infrastructure for Textile Manufacturing like cheap land and power.

"Our aim is to transform India into a major player in innovations, technology development, applications in key areas (agriculture, roads & railways, water resources, hygiene and healthcare, personal protection) with emphasis on higher education and skilled workforce”, he pointed out.

The growth of Technical Textiles in India has gained momentum in the past five years; it is currently growing at 8 % per annum. The aim is to hasten this growth to 15-20% range during next 5 years, said the Union Ministry of Textiles.

Goyal said that the current world market is 250 Billion USD (18 Lakh Crore) and India’s share in it is USD 19 Billion. India is an aspiring player with USD 40 Billion size in this market (8% share).

The biggest players are USA, Western Europe, China and Japan (20 – 40% share). He said that in addition to the growth in statistical terms, we will direct the growth towards high technology and indigenously innovated products.

Talking about the efforts made by the government to promote technical textiles, the Textiles Minister informed that 92 items have been made mandatory for use by Government organizations covering agriculture/horticulture, highways, railways, water resources, medical applications.

He added that BIS has issued Indian Standards for 377 item and nearly 100 were in the pipeline.

Technical Textiles are textiles, which are engineered to give desired output suitable for specific applications. The basic raw material are natural fibres like jute, silk and cotton. But, majority of the applications use man-made fibres: polymers(Aramid, Nylon) , carbon, glass, and metals.

Technical Textiles are the technology of future. This is going to be the next technological revolution entirely changing the way we live and think.

Based on their area of applications, Technical Textiles segment is divided into 12 sub-segments.

India has a major presence in Packaging Textiles (Packtech): 38%, Geotechnical Textiles (Geo-tech): 10%, Agricultural Textiles (Agrotech): 12%.