The Union Minister of Textiles, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal during a video conference on Wednesday with members of Export Promotion Councils stated that textile manufacturers should start securing Cotton to meet their demands. He further added that besides all those involved with the cotton industry should meet to discuss the strategy to ensure the traceability of cotton and better value of cotton products.

The virtual meeting was convened with senior representatives of all the 11 Export Promotion Councils under the Ministry of Textiles including the Apparel Export Promotion Council (Chairman, Narendra Goenka), The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (Chairman, Sh. Sunil Patwari), Carpet Export Promotion Council (Chairman, Umar Hameed), Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (Executive Director, RK Verma), to name some.

In addition, representatives of industry associations namely The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, Tiruppur Exporters Association, and The Southern India Mills’ Association also participated in the meeting.

He said that a two days meeting should be organized to discuss new ideas on strengthening the Textile sector. At least 50 percent of participants should be youngsters and there should be involvement of Quality Control of India (QCI), Commerce, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade ( DPIIT) Finance, and Banking Export Insurance for holistic engagement so as overarching themes may be discussed.

The Union Minister said that last year, Textile export was approx. 42 billion USD while the target is to achieve 100 billion USD by the next 5-6 years. He mentioned that if achieved, the economic value of the sector will be 250 billion USD collectively for domestic and international.

Goyal introduced Ms. Rachna Shah, IAS with the EPCs, who will be officially taking charge as Secretary Ministry of Textile on November 1st, 2022 after the superannuation of UP Singh, Secretary Textile on October 31st, 2022.

He directed Shah should visit the Textile hubs like Surat, Noida, Tiruppur-Coimbatore, and others. In addition, applications proposed under PM Mitra around these hubs may also be visited for observation and recording responses of the industry representatives.

He said that funds are available under Textile Mission and should be utilized in new projects. He added the potential of the Textile Sector may be showcased in Group 20.

Participation of industry representatives in the shopping festivals recently announced by the Finance Minister may also be pursued, he said.

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