In these days, there is no shortage of harbingers of happy news for the textile industry. Ministers, secretaries, officials of Textile Ministry and a host of industry pundits have been singing in chorus about the healthy rate of growth for the textile industry. A recent FICCI-organised seminar on medical textiles -- Meditech – held the attention of a sizeable crowd in rapt attention. A fair amount of interest was shown by the industry, many queries were raised, and much of the doubts were cleared by experts.

Medical textiles form just 5% share in the total technical textiles. But the prospects are good since India's development in medical field is very much continuing at a brisk pace. Medical tourism is on a spirited path of growth. Hygiene and personal health consciousness is spreading far and wide. Technical textiles consumption under Meditech is estimated around Rs 1,500 crore. This is expected to shoot up to Rs 2,263 crore by 2012 - 13. The Meditech industry is likely to grow by about 9%. The technical textiles usage in the Meditech products exported from India is around Rs 155 crore. The technical textile products covered under Meditech include baby diapers, incontinence diapers, sanitary napkins, surgical sutures, disposables, surgical dressing, contact lens and artificial implants. These include high-value products with low-volume prospects and vice versa. But the industry is sitting on the wall, awaiting the signal to jump into the competition. SITRA, a premier research association in the south India seems to be well equipped with information and findings to help the industry to tackle the market forces for the industry. Will the industry bite the bait and strive for success in such emerging fields like Meditech? A Director of another leading research association said: "Talks, talks & talks. Not much use unless the industry starts investing in such risk-taking ventures. Just attending seminars alone is not enough."

Opportunities to diversify into new areas are knocking at the doors of the textile industry. Some Far Eastern countries have tasted immense success in these fields. Will the Indian industry be only postponing its take-off, weighing the options and delaying the tactics?