The woes of the Indian textile machinery industry are far from over. During 2006-07, the industry's production rose to Rs 2,600 crore from about Rs 1,685 crore in 2003-04. Between these years, there has been a spurt in demand for the textile machinery. But again, over 70% of the demand has been met by imports. Moreover the production increase in 2006-07 is only 7% over the previous year against 26% and 31 % during 2005-06 and 2006-07 respectively. The textile industry is back to singing the same tune - weaving and processing sectors on the domestic front, which are the weakest links in the textile chains, have moved at snail's pace! Some loom manufacturers in the country claim to have developed high-tech shuttle less models running at a faster speed comparable to that of imported ones. But they fear losing out to competition from imported ones, particularly second-hand machines. Though there is an annual capacity to make 15,000 shuttle less looms within the country, the present capacity does not exceed 500, aver sources from the industry. The loom lobby also complains that the Chinese machines, which are much cheaper but of poor quality, have also made inroads into the domestic market. 

The domestic processing sector has also not made much headway. India has about 3,500 power processors in the deecentralised sector apart from 11,000 hand processing units and a few organised process houses. Imported machines are the only solution to stem rejections in the supply offabrics to the western and other importing countries. The processing and finishing plays a crucial role in the ultimate quality of the end-products. Mostly, the industry has only batch type machines and sophisticated, continuous ranges are far and few, installed only in big companies with financial muscle. It is obvious that despite flaunting the demand projection of Rs 1,90,000 crore ofthe textile industry now and then in forums and conferences, the progress in making available better textile technologies within the country has been only tardy, to say the least.