The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh has assured the textile industry that the Government will pay the closest attention to devise appropriate strategies to further promote the growth and the competitiveness of this vital national industry. The Prime Minister stated this while delivering the inaugural address at the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI), in New Delhi.
In making the Indian textile industry globally competitive especially after Multi-Fibre Agreement (MFA) regime, the Prime Minister said that the UPA Government has focused on three imperatives namely the need to ensure a stable policy environment; the need to support modernisation through financing technological upgradation and to help build global brands for Indian textiles. Recognising the problems faced by the exporters due to the strengthening of rupee, the Prime Minister expressed confidence that the exporters have the enterprise and business acumen to deal with this challenge and improve their competitiveness. He said that the Government has also taken steps to help mitigate the loss of competitive advantage while ensuring that our external economic management is stable and sustainable. Giving the details of fiscal measures taken by the Government to strengthen the textile sector, Dr Manmohan Singh said that the excise duty structure has been completely transformed with large scale concessions. Customs duty for a number of textile machinery items have been reduced and hosiery and knitwear items have been dereserved from the small scale sector. The Technology Upgradation Fund has been extended into the 11th Plan and the scheme for Integrated Textile Parks in Public-Private Partnership mode has also been expanded. He said that as a result of these measures India is also becoming a major outsourcing hub. The Prime Minister reiterated that the new growth areas like Technical Textiles will be actively promoted and a Technology Mission on Technical Textiles will be launched to support growth in this area.
Stating that the challenge in the 11th Plan is to increase the skill base to make the sector competitive, the Prime Minister said that the National Skill Development Mission has already identified this as a thrust area. He emphasised the need of innovative responses to increase jobs in the country and the textile industry and suggested the idea of linking guaranteed employment for a certain number of days in a policy framework that can meet the genuine demands of the sector. The Prime Minister stated that the textile sector has been a major pillar of our industrial economy for more than one reason but importantly because of its employment potential. He said “Our Government will come forward and address all your legitimate concerns as long as we can work together to generate more employment.”
Speaking on the occasion, the Textiles Minister, Mr Shankersinh Vaghela emphasised the need for value addition to the raw materials within the country. He said the appreciation of rupee has led to the reduction in textile exports. To mitigate the problem of the exporters, the Government has announced several fiscal measures in the last one year. With a view to give more benefit to the industry, the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme has been also extended into the 11th Plan, Mr Vaghela added. |
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