INDIA: Textiles Investment to Touch Rs. 1,50,600 Crore
Shri Shankersinh Vaghela, Union Minister of Textiles, said that the biggest achievement of the Government was to turnaround the Indian Textiles from the Sunset to Sunrise sector. He said this while interacting with the media at Amritsar today. He said that the rationalization of fiscal duties undertaken during the last four and a half years has provided a level playing field in all segments of the textiles industry, resulting in the holistic growth of the industry. The Minister said that the textiles sector has witnessed a spurt in investment during the last four and a half years, which were Rs. 1,08,531 crore between 2004-08 and are expected to touch Rs. 1,50,600 crore by 2012. This enhanced investment will generate 17.37 million jobs by 2012.
Shri Vaghela said that the revival of textiles sector has come after years of low growth. Post Independence, restrictions such as the reservation of knitted and woven products to the small scale units, prevented growth, as the SSI units did not have the financial capacity for investment in expansion. Even the economic liberalization of 1991 and the dismantling of the quota system in 2005 failed to spur the industry into the growth mode. The real impetus to the sector came with the dereservation of small scale sector, and rationalization of duties, implementation of the Scheme for Integrated Textile Park (SITP) and a renewed focus on Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) to help modernize production, said Vaghela.
Added: January 26, 2009 Source: Agencies