Technical Textiles

Posted 27 Jul 2024

4 min read

Why in the News?

The National Technical Textiles Mission’s Empowered Programme Committee has approved seven startup proposals under the GREAT scheme initiative.

Grant for Research and Entrepreneurship across Aspiring Innovators in Technical Textiles (GREAT) initiative emerged from the Research, Development, and Innovation component of the National Technical Textiles Mission (NTTM).

Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Textiles
Objectives: Encourages young innovators, scientists / technologists, and startup ventures in the field of Technical Textiles to translate their ideas into commercial technologies /products and make India self-reliant.
Grant in Aid: Normally upto Rs.50 Lakhs for a period of 18 months.

Technical textiles are defined as textile materials and products used primarily for their technical performance and functional properties rather than their aesthetic or decorative characteristics.
- Technical Textiles are used for various applications ranging from agriculture, roads, railway tracks, sportswear, health on one end to bullet proof jacket, fireproof jackets, high altitude combat gear and space applications on another end of spectrum.

Enhances the Productivity: According to the Technical Textiles Ecosystem in India report, Use of ecognize in horticulture leads to increase in farm productivity by 2-5 times.
Convergence with government Initiatives: Like target of phasing out single use plastic items provide opportunity for Pack-tech to supplement the efforts by enhancing production.
- India is dominating the Packtech segment with a global market share of 40-45%.
High Growth rate: Indian technical textiles market growing at a rate of 8-10 per cent per annum.
- Indian technical textiles market is fifth largest in the world and stood at USD21.95 billion in 2021-22.
Export Potential: India’s exports of technical textile products grew from USD2.21 billion in 2020-21 to USD2.85 billion in 2021-22, , registering a growth rate of 28.4 per cent
Others: Ability to scale up in a short period; Highwage workforce generating capacity, etc.

Import dependence for machinery: Currently, majority of machinery used to manufacture technical textiles products is not available in India.
Lack of Adoption: Majority of intended end users of technical textile products are still unaware of the benefits of usage of such products.
Lack of standardization and related regulations: Several technical textile products do not have Standard Benchmarks, resulting in availability of sub-standard cheaper products.
- Institutional buyers such as defence have traditionally opted for import route for procurement of several technical textile products owing to the required standards.
Entrepreneurial Gap: Limited entrepreneurial culture and skill training in technical textiles hinder investment attraction and expansion of production capacities in the country.
Inadequate R&D facilities for technical textiles: Hurdle for the industry because it stifles innovation in a field that is characterised by fast changes in products and processes.

National Technical Textiles Mission (NTTM): To position the country as a global leader in Technical Textiles.
- Implementation period: FY 2020-21 to 2023-24.
- Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Textiles.

Schemes:
- Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for textiles
- PM Mega Integrated Textile Regions and Apparel Parks (MITRA) Scheme
- Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks (SITP)
Quality Control Regulations: Ministry of textiles has issued Quality Control Order (QCOs) for 19 items of Geo-tech Textiles, 12 items of Protective Textiles items, 20 items of Agro Textiles and 06 items of Meditech Textile.
New HSN Codes: Development of new HSN Codes dedicated to technical textiles’ products.
Standards in technical textiles: Development of more than 500 Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) standards for technical textiles.
Mandatory usage of technical textiles: Technical textiles products have been identified for mandatory usage across several Central ministries/departments to derive the benefits of technical textiles in various fields of applications.

Awareness creation: Government and the industry need to build a solid infrastructure to educate people about technical textiles.
Skilling and education ecosystem: The government needs to work with various entrepreneurship development institutes for initiating courses on entrepreneurship in technical textiles.
Developing India Brands: Positioning Indian Brands as Global Champions & Preparing Industry to create customer specific products
Facilitation of PPP modelled ‘Centre of Excellence’: Focus on designing, market linkages, capacity building, testing centres, research on sustainable materials and technology upgradation support in technical textiles.
Joint ventures in technical textiles: Joint ventures would help in technology transfer and minimizing development cost of high quality products. This arrangement can be a win-win for Indian and foreign players as it provides access to new markets and opportunities.
Promote Start-ups: Creation of incubation centres and encouragement of start-ups for entrepreneur development in technical textiles.