The Hindu Business Line : Vision 2010 for textiles sees 12 m new jobs

A VISION 2010 for textiles by the Government envisages growth in Indian textile industry from current $37 billion to $85 billion by 2010 and employment of 12 million new jobs, besides modernisation and consolidation for crating a globally competitive textile industry.

A Vision 2010 for textiles formulated by the Government after intensive interaction with industry and export promotion councils to capitalise the upbeat mood of the industry in the wake of the imminent end to the quota regime governing global trade in textile sand clothing was shown to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, here last evening by way of power-point presentation. The Union Textile Minister, Mr Shanker Sinh Vaghela, and the Union Commerce & Industry Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, were present.

An official release said the mood in the textile industry in anticipation of the phase-out of the quota regime is upbeat with new investment flowing in and increased orders for the industry as a result of which capacities are fully booked up to April 2005.

As a result of various initiatives taken by the Government in the last five years, there has been new investment of Rs 50,000 crore in the textile industry. Nine textile majors invested Rs 2,600 crore and plan to invest another Rs 6,400 crore. The country's cotton production increased by 57 per cent over the last five years; and 3 million additional spindles and 30,000 shuttle-less looms were installed.

The advantages to the industry include strong raw material base — cotton, man-made fibres, jute, silk — and large production capacity (spinning 21 per cent of world capacity and weaving 33 per cent of world capacity but of low technology), vast pool of skilled manpower, entrepreneurs, flexibility in production process and long experience with US/European Union.

The challenges include fragmented industry, constraints of processing , quality of cotton, concern over power cost, labour reforms and other infrastructural constraints.

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