The new Textile Secretary, Zohra Chatterji said that the growing technical textile industry in India currently provides employment to over 8 lakh people.
"I feel that with proper standardization and regulation mandating its usage in certain fields the sector has a potential to grow at 20 percent year-on-year during the 12th Five Year Plan period. The sector currently employs over 8 lakh people in India with technical manpower estimated to be 55 percent of the total employment. It is a key area of development for India's technical textile sector," she said during a PHD Chamber event on 'Technical Textile' in New Delhi on Thursday.
She also mentioned that the sector has tremendous potential for growth and employment generation in future. It is necessary to set up more units that can boost growth of emerging technical textile industries in India.
At the moment, there are only about 150 units functioning in the sector.
"I strongly believe that private sector has a leading role in the development of technical textiles. Therefore, I think more and more firms should explore opportunities in the sector," Chatterji added.
She added that India merely contributes only 3 percent to the non-woven technical textile production in Asia, which is far less compared to the potential India has.
The Textile Secretary has urged the industry to avail the government's schemes and incentives available in a much greater extent. Also, she emphasised on the need for skilling people in the technical textile industry.
The technical textiles industry is forecast to grow at Rs 1,58,000 crore by 2016-17. The industry has grown to Rs 63,000 crore in 2011-12 from Rs 41,000 crore in 2010-11.
