The newly formed Telangana state has ambitions on the textile front too. It is planning to present a new textile and Apparel policy (T-TAP) in January 2016. Besides, the state is also planning to set up textile parks in each of the district where cotton is grown as a major commercial crop. Proposed policy envisages Warangal as a major textile hub besides textile parks proposed in each of the districts of Karimnagar, Adilabad, Khammam and Medak.
The proposed policy envisages Warangal as a major textile hub besides textile parks proposed in each of the districts Karimnagar, Adilabad, Khammam and Medak. Considering textile as a good potential area for employment creation, Telangana plans to focus more on the textile sector and proposing to encourage apparel units. The policy will also aim at strengthening the procurement of raw cotton and extend the remunerative prices to the farmers besides creating marketing linkages for the products produced by the weavers and handloom societies.
The new policy will be operational for a period of five years from the date of its announcement. The incentives will be provided to the investors who come forward to set up garment cotton based ancillary industries on par the sops offered for other industrial units under TS-iPass policy announced recently by the government.
The State Industries and Handlooms Minister, J Krishna Rao had already held a meeting with the officials concerned and discussed the progress in preparation of the draft policy. As of now, although Telangana produces long staple cotton, there is no proper value addition and raw cotton is exported and the policy will try to address these things in detail. Besides, the government is planning to promote and bring back artisans, who have migrated to other states.
The policy will also focus on enhancing the garmenting capacity in the state, by providing skilled manpower, and provision of hard infrastructure thereby making units in the state competitive to produce with international standards. Further, the policy will also speak about the promotion of technical textile such as camouflaged clothing, construction textiles, institutional manufacturing gears, etc.