Textile Ministry unveils 100-day agenda

The textile sector will get a major boost in terms of infrastructure in next 100 days with the government opening two integrated textile parks, pumping in additional resources of Rs 1,660 crore (Rs 16.60 billion)  for cotton MSP and launching training programmes for 50,000 weavers.

Unveiling the 100-day programme for his ministry, Textile Minister Dayanidhi Maran said the government would soon set up an expert group for devising a national fibre policy.

The ministry "will work for giving additional allocation of Rs 1,660 crore for the Cotton Corporation of India to meet its Minimum Support Price (MSP) obligation," Maran said.

CCI, the nodal agency for cotton procurement, had been seeking additional resources, stating it was incurring losses in operations.

One integrated textile park involving an investment of Rs 500-1,000 crore (Rs 5-10 billion) each at Surat and Visakhapatnam would be inaugurated in next three months, Maran said.

The Centre would provide Rs 40 crore (Rs 400 million) to each of these parks. The size of domestic textile industry has been estimated at Rs 3,00,000 crore (Rs 3000 billlion) and the sector exports about 40 per cent of its total output.