Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog identified key steps needed to be taken to make Indian textiles globally competitive: “We need to focus on large scale production and enter global value chains through collaborations with international brands”. He was speaking at the 10th CII Conference on Textiles and Apparel Industry - Texcon ’18, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to move towards a USD 300 billion textile industry by 2025.
Mr Kant placed emphasis on the production of man-made fibres as the way forward for the Indian textile industry. He added, “We at NITI Aayog have been pushing for technical textiles”. Mr. Kant encouraged industry to create backward and forward linkages rather than focussing on small scale units.
Mr Kant advised that the textile industry work with both the centre and state governments to create world-class infrastructure. “Creating these hubs will bring down the cost of production and enhance productivity”, he noted. He stated that India hopes to finalise an FTA with the European Union and key countries.
Mr. Gautam Nair, Chairman - CII National Committee on Textiles and Apparel, and Managing Director - Matrix Clothing Ltd., focused on key strategies for the growth of the textile sector. He stressed, “Exports on textiles must be zero-rated. We need to move away from small scale production and work with key hubs like Tiruppur to set up one-stop shops for the industry”.
Mr. Sanjay Lalbhai, Chairman and Managing Director – Arvind Ltd., emphasised the need for consistently low taxes to be passed on in exports. “There needs to be a policy framework and an agreement between centre and states that we will comprehensively look at all the taxes which are going into the manufacturing of the entire value chain of textiles”. He further added that the industry must focus on its global footprint, in terms of “cost-competitive advantage, consistent macro-environments, and the utilisation of new technological and business practices”.
14 December 2018
New Delhi