Export Promotion Council for Technical Textiles

• 04 Dec 2020

Why in News

The Ministry of Textiles has invited proposals for the constitution of a dedicated Export Promotion Council (EPC) for Technical Textiles.

Key Points

• The constitution of an Export Promotion Council for Technical Textiles is a part of the National Technical Textiles Mission.
  
  • The Council shall abide by all directions of the Central Government in respect of promotion and development of international trade.
• National Technical Textiles Mission:
  
  • It was approved with a total outlay of Rs. 1480 crore in February 2020.
  • It aims to position the country as a global leader in technical textiles and increase the use of technical textiles in the domestic market.
  • It aims at taking domestic market size to USD 40 billion to USD 50 billion by 2024.
  • It will be implemented for four years starting from 2020-2021 and has four components:
    
    • First component: It focuses on research, development and innovation with an outlay of Rs. 1,000 crores.
      
      • The research will be at both fibre level and application-based in geo, agro, medical, sports and mobile textiles and development of biodegradable technical textiles.
      • Research activities will also focus on the development of indigenous machinery and process equipment.
    • Second component: It is for the promotion and development of the market for technical textiles.
    • Third component: It focuses on export promotion so that technical textile exports from the country reach from Rs.14,000 crores to Rs. 20,000 crores by 2021-2022 and will ensure 10% average growth every year till the Mission ends.
    • Fourth component: It focuses on education, training and skill development.
  • A Mission Directorate is operational in the Ministry of Textiles for implementation of the Mission.
• Data on the Indian Technical Textiles Segment:
  
  • It is estimated at 16 billion USD which is approximately 6% of the 250 billion USD global technical textiles market.
  • The penetration level of technical textiles in India varies between 5% and 10% against the level of 30% to 70% in developed countries.

Technical Textiles

• Technical textiles are textiles materials and products manufactured primarily for technical performance and functional properties rather than aesthetic characteristics.
• Technical textiles are functional fabrics that have applications across various industries including automobiles, civil engineering and construction, agriculture, healthcare, industrial safety (fire proof jackets), personal protection (bullet proof jackets, high altitude combat gear), space applications etc.
• Based on usage, there are 12 technical textile segments:
  
  • Agrotech, Meditech, Buildtech, Mobiltech, Clothtech, Oekotech, Geotech, Packtech, Hometech, Protech, Indutech and Sportech.
• For example,
  
  • Mobiltech refers to products in vehicles such as seat belts and airbags, airplane seats.
  • Geotech, which is incidentally the fastest growing segment, used to hold back soil, etc.

Source:PIB