Mithileshwar Thakur has recently joined as the Secretary General of Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), Ministry of Textiles. He is a member of the ’89 batch of Civil Service with rich experience in the Government of India and in the best of public & private sector companies.
Thakur is the Gold Medalist /Topper in B. Tech., recipient of merit scholarships and also among Top All India rank holders in the Combined Engineering Services Examination conducted by UPSC. Prior to joining civil services, he was selected/ appointed as a member of IRS (ME) in the Indian Railways and as Engineer with Tata Steel/ Tata Motors/ NTPC.
Speaking on his new role Thakur said, “My mantra for exponential growth of Indian Textiles and Apparel sector is investment, innovation and integration of value chain. The focus should be on building scale, skill and technology besides diversification of products basket and strengthening of Brand India.” The idea is to align the industry’s approach with the government’s vision to make India a favoured textiles destination, he added.
Earlier. he served as Additional Director General in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India and was extensively involved in the formulation and implementation of India’s Foreign Trade policy; administration of Trade Remedy Measures; amendment of Anti-dumping, Anti-subsidy and Safeguard Rules and negotiation of Free Trade Agreements/ CECA/CEPA.
He had also headed Trade Defense in the Department of Commerce. He has in-depth knowledge of Customs, Excise and GST laws and procedures. His areas of interest include Intellectual Property Right issues and Cyber Laws.
He has been Chairman, Export Facilitation Committee of Western Zone; Committee on Trade Disputes of Western and Southern zone and has been member of various important committees viz. State Level Export Promotion Committee (SLEPC), Permanent Trade Facilitation Committee (PTFC), Regional Economic Intelligence Committee (REIC), Approval Committee of various SEZs in Kerala and Maharashtra, Cotton Advisory Board etc.
Thakur has also been a member of Task Force in the Department of Commerce on Reduction of Compliance Burden for Citizens and Business, Task Force on amendment of FTDR Act and was also associated with the Task Force on Reduction of Transaction Cost in Exports.
He has been a Visiting faculty to various reputed institutions viz. IIT, Kharagpur; National Academy of Customs, Excise & Narcotics (NACEN), IIFT, Foreign Service Institute, Centre for WTO Studies, Law Centre (Delhi University) and Keynote Speaker at international forums like WTO, Seoul International Forum on Trade Remedies, Asia Pacific Trade Facilitation Forum, etc.
He has also been panelist/speaker at various other prestigious events including the ones organized by The Economic Times, Thomson and Reuters, Dun and Bradstreet, FICCI, CII, FIEO and various important Chamber of Commerce & Industry Associations.
