ITTA event focuses on functional textiles

The exhibition showcased the entire technical textile and footwear products developed by various manufacturers showing the possible improvements of the different products used by the Indian Navy.

The Indian Technical Textile Association (ITTA)—in association with Indian Navy, supported by the Office of the Textile Commissioner, Ministry of Textile—organised a two-day clothing and footwear seminar-cum-exhibition at Mulla Auditorium at Navy Nagar, Colaba Defence Station, Mumbai on January 7-8, 2016. The first seminar-cum-exhibition was attended by more than 300 delegates from both the Indian Navy and the technical textiles industry.

The exhibition showcased the entire technical textile and footwear products developed by manufacturers showing the possible improvements of the different products used by the Indian Navy. Some of the prominent exhibitors are: Raymond, Arvind, Welspun, Shiva Texyarn, Venus safety, RSWM, ACCENT Inds, Euro safety, Liberty, Mayur, Bata, etc. In addition, Indian Navy displayed their entire range of products currently used by them.

The two-day seminar was inaugurated by Vice Admiral SPS Cheema, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command. He said that India is known world over for its textile industry and pointing out on the procedural difficulties faced by the services and vendors, he emphasised that the procurement procedures are being reviewed by the government. He added that this seminar is yet another effort by the Indian Navy towards achieving improvement in quality of clothing and footwear.

Dr Kavita Gupta (IAS), Textile Commissioner, addressed the delegates highlighting the importance of different segments of the technical textile and its growth rate of in India. She also spoke in details about the initiatives taken by the Government on the promotion and growth of technical textiles. He appreciated the efforts take by ITTA to bring together Indian Navy and the Indian technical textile industry along with the regular segments of the textile Industry, through the seminar and exhibition to understand and improve the quality and supply of the products used by Indian Navy.

In his keynote address, Gautam Singhania, CMD, Raymonds Group, representing the textile industry, apprised the audience about the developments in textile industry, which can be of great use to the armed forces and also talked on the huge scope of using technical textiles in Indian Navy, like fire retardant, antimicrobial, etc. products.

Vice Admiral Jaywant Kode, Controller of Logistics, Ministry of Defence (Navy) spoke in his opening address, that this seminar has been organised to have dialogue and better interaction between the Indian Navy and the technical textile industry.

Pramod Khosla, Chairman, ITTA, welcomed the delegates and narrated ITTA’s contributions during the last couple of years to the growth of various segments of Indian TT industry and the objective of this seminar.

Session II

The second technical session, chaired by R Adm. Satish Bajaj, VSM, ACOL, was on “Naval Procurement Procedures, Budgeting & Aspirations of Indian Navy And ITTA”. The following presentation were made during this session.

1. Requirements & aspirations of Indian Navy by Capt Arvind Vadhera, VSM highlighted that Indian Navy is fifth largest navy in world using 409 distinct items which include regular uniform, protective clothing, safety footwear, technical textile and extreme winter clothing, with an annual budget of around Rs 100 crore.
2. Procurement procedures of Indian Navy by Cmde.
GS Negi briefed about the objective of public procurement, basis of procurement, the procurement process in the Indian Navy and tendering.
3. Organisation, capabilities and aspirations of ITTA and industry by Dr KS Sundraraman, Vice Chairman, ITTA & ED, Shiva Texyarn Ltd. emphasised about ITTA. He highlighted the importance of technical textiles, areas of expertise of ITTA members and the potential applications for the Indian Navy.

Session III

Chaired by RAdm Sunil Anand, NM CSO P& A, HQWNC, the third session was on “Functional & Regular Clothing Requirement of Indian Navy”. In this session four papers were presented.

1. Innovative developments to enhance clothing options for the Indian Navy by Dr Vijay Ramakrishnan, HOD & Sushil Hada, TRADC, Grasim Inds, Gujarat highlighted the capability and expertise of textile research and application development centre and also products developed by Grasim.
2. What technical textile industry can offer to Indian Navy? by Mahesh Kudav, MD, Venus Safety & Health, Mumbai emphasised on the different products which can be offered to Indian Navy by the Indian technical textile industry. He presented the product-wise list of ITTA members which showed that almost all kinds of technical textile products are manufactured in India, some may in developmental stage. However, it showed that our industry is well equipped to cater to the needs of the Indian Navy.
3. Protecting the Protectors – Advances in Technical Textiles by Atanu Acharya & Arindam Dasgupta Life Protection Solutions, DuPont, South Asia had explained about the salient features of protective textiles available in India and abroad and used by the Navy of various countries.
4. Advanced functional clothing & garments for Indian Navy by Basant Lohia, MD, Tarasafe International Pvt Ltd, Ahmedabad presented a hole range of fire retardant and other multi-functional protective textiles produced by the Tarasafe International and other manufacturers.

Session IV

The fourth session was focused on “Footwear requirement of Indian Navy” and was chaired by Dr Anup Rakshit, Executive Director, ITTA.

1. Scope of improvement in regular footwear for Indian Navy by Shammi Bansal, MD, Liberty Shoes Ltd highlighted the range of regular footwear product used by Indian Navy and the possibilities of further development by using better raw material and different technologies. He also narrated the products developed by Liberty.
2. Advanced technology for safety footwear used by Indian Navy and other countries by SK Neogi, Technical Director, Mayur Leather Products., Jaipur spoke on risk factors like oil, water, fire resistance, etc., which are to be considered for production of the safety footwear. He added that a range of textile components like micro-fibre fabric, technical textiles, etc.
3. Modernisation of Accoutrements – “Badges and insignia” by Prof Shakti Sagar Katre had highlighted the importance of Badges and insignia on the uniforms of Indian Navy and the work done by NIFT on solving certain quality issues of these products.