The SIMA Head, Ravi Sam has thanked the Tamilnadu Government and the Chief Minister for making various announcements including the mobiletech for automobile sector. Tamilnadu textile industry accounts over 1/3rd of the textile business in the country by accounting 45 percent of the cotton yarn production, 22 percent of the powerloom fabric production, 12 percent of handloom fabric production, 45 percent of knitted fabric production, 40 percent of home textiles production, 70 percent of the spinning machinery and other machinery, accessories and spares manufacturing capacity. Besides providing jobs to 60 lakh people and fetching over Rs.1 lakh cr as foreign exchange, the industry acts as the backbone of not only for the economy of the State, but also for the country. The State also consumes around 35 percent of the cotton produced in the country.
The Chief Minister of Tamilnadu, M.K. Stalin, soon after assuming charge, started giving major thrust for enhancing the global competitiveness of the manufacturing sector, attracting investments, boosting exports, enabling Ease of Doing Business. Realizing the need for giving more importance for the growth of the textile industry, the Chief Minister had created a separate Department with a dedicated Commissioner ate for the purpose.
He started with the removal of the Agricultural Market Committee Fee that prevailed since 1959 and benefited over three lakh farmers, the spinning sector especially the open-end spinning sector and the entire cotton textile value chain in the State. The CM has also allocated Rs.15.32 cr for the Sustainable Cotton Development Mission in the State and constituted a Committee to encourage ELS cotton, organic cotton and sustainable cotton production in the State. During the current Assembly session, the Government has announced a slew of policy initiatives that would further accelerate the growth of the textile industry in Tamilnadu. Ravi Sam, Chairman, The Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) has appreciated and thanked the Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin and Minister for Handlooms and Textiles, Gandhi for announcing various policy initiatives in the Assembly. Ravi Sam said that the announcement regarding Research and Development for the disposal of the accumulated salts of the textile processing sector would give a great relief for the processing segment and also protect the environment. He has also appreciated for making a special announcement for encouraging technical textiles especially in the mobiletech for automobile sector, protech for the defence sector, sportech for the sports sector and meditech for the medical textile sector. SIMA Chairman has said that the announcement made to establish a mega Textile Park in an area of 1000 acres in Virudhunagar District would encourage scale of operation and would greatly boost the exports of the State. The announcement of creating a Textile City near Chennai giving focus for creating Integrated Textile Marketing and Fashion Trends and allocating Rs.1.00 cr for the preparation of feasibility study and DPR also received heaping appreciation. The announcement of Tamilnadu Pavilion in all the major International Textile Fairs would enable the State to create brand Tamilnadu and boost exports. He has welcomed the announcement of creating a dedicated website and IT infrastructure at a cost of Rs.1 cr to disseminate the information relating to the Tamilnadu textile industry manufacturing capability and facilitate B2B trade opportunities. SIMA Chief has said that the announcement of constituting a Technical Advisory Committee would benefit the industry to have a regular interaction with the Government and resolve various issues and also enable the State to become the largest textile hub in the world.
SIMA Chairman has also appreciated the various unique announcements made for the handloom textiles such as signing of MoU with National Institute for Fashion Technology (NIFT) to create 500 designs per year at a cost Rs.50 lakhs, providing skill development training to 50 handloom weavers through National Institute for Design (NID) at a cost of Rs.50 lakhs, allocating Rs.2.50 cr to TN Zari Limited to enhance its productivity, allocating Rs.1 cr for the creation of TN Handloom Authenticity Body, allocating Rs.1 cr for digitization of traditional and GI tagged handloom articles, allocating Rs.10 cr to develop “Handlooms of India” fusion shop, providing Rs.10 cr for the surveying and geo tagging of handlooms and powerlooms in the State, extending financial support to install Electronic Panel Board in 5,000 powerlooms to improve their productivity, allocating Rs.10 cr to develop an international design studio in Chennai.
Ravi Sam has finally said that all these unique measures and historical announcements made by the Government of Tamilnadu would pave way for the faster growth of Tamilnadu textiles & clothing sector and would enable the State to retain its numero-uno position in India’s textiles & clothing sector.
