The government may make the use of anti-hail nets to protect crops, chemical-protection suits for defence, and drapes, gowns, sanitary napkins and implants for medical use mandatory as it seeks to develop the potential of technical textiles and facilitate their public procurement.
A comprehensive policy on technical textiles is being prepared to make their use mandatory in certain sectors, provide financial support to promote domestic manufacturing and set standards to make India a production hub for them. Technical textiles are meant for non-aesthetic purposes, where function is the primary criterion.
According to one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Bureau of Indian Standards has been advised to develop world-class norms across the 12 segments of technical textiles on priority as the government wants to push domestic production.
India accounts for about 4 per cent of the global market for technical textiles. The ministry of textiles estimates the technical textile industry in India will grow to about Rs 2 lakh crore by 2020-21 from over Rs 1.16 lakh crore in 2017-18. Technical textiles account for about 12 per cent of India’s textile market, compared with 20 per cent in China.