New Export Promotion Council for Technical Textiles

Technical textiles UPSC: Relevance

• GS 2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Technical textiles in India: Context

• Recently, the government has announced that it is planning to set up a separate export promotion council for boosting shipments of technical textiles.

Export promotion council: Key points

• The Ministry of Textiles said that there have been many export promotion councils for various fields of textiles and clothing.
• The government is planning to form a separate export promotion council for technical textiles, as it is a new addition in textile field.
• Earlier, there were no proper coordination between different ministries and nodal agencies, and the council will ensure that all concerned departments and ministries have smooth coordination.

Technical textiles meaning

• Technical textiles are textiles materials and products manufactured primarily for technical performance and functional properties rather than aesthetic characteristics.
• Technical Textiles products are divided into 12 broad categories (Agrotech, Buildtech, Clothtech, Geotech, Hometech, Indutech, Mobiltech, Meditech, Protech, Sportstech, Oekotech, Packtech) depending upon their application areas.

तकनीकी वस्त्रों हेतु नई निर्यात संवर्धन परिषद

Technical Textiles in India- Key Potential

• Contribution in Indian Economy: Technical textile accounts for approximately 13% of India’s total textile and apparel market and contributes to India’s GDP at 0.7%.
• There is a huge potential to fulfil a large demand gap as the consumption of technical textiles in India is still only at 5-10% against 30-70% in some of the advanced countries.
• National Technical Textiles Mission: It has been set up with an aim to ensure-
• An average growth rate of 15-20% to increase the domestic market size of technical textiles to $ 40-50 Bn by the year 2024
  • This is to be achieved through market development, market promotion, international technical collaborations, investment promotions and Make in India initiative.
• Global Potential: The demand for technical textiles was pegged at $ 165 Bn in the year 2018 and is expected to grow up to $ 220 Bn by 2025, at a CAGR of 4% from 2018-25.

Technical textiles applications

• Technical Textiles are futuristic segment of textiles, which are used for various applications ranging from
  • agriculture,
  • roads,
  • railway tracks,
  • sportswear,
  • health
  • bullet proof jacket,
  • fire proof jackets,
  • high altitude combat gear and
  • space applications

Technical textiles benefits

• It will help in the promotion of manufacturing and exports activities in India.
• The use of technical textiles in agriculture, aquaculture, dairy, poultry, etc. will bring an overall improvement in cost economy, water and soil conservation, better agricultural productivity and higher income to farmers per acre of land holding.
• The use of geo-textiles in highways, railways and ports will result in robust infrastructure, reduced maintenance cost and higher life cycle of the infrastructure assets.

Read current affairs for UPSC

Sharing is caring!