These projects are focused on key strategic areas such as geotech, protech, indutech, sustainable textiles, sportech, smart e-textiles, and meditech segments.
The Ministry of Textiles announced that 18 R&D projects totalling Rs 46.74 crore, were approved during the 7th MSG meeting. These projects are focused on key strategic areas such as geotech, protech, indutech, sustainable textiles, sportech, smart e-textiles, and meditech segments.
Among the approved projects, 14 were high-value projects, 3 were prototype grant projects, and 1 was an ideation grant project. The projects encompassed various application areas of technical textiles. This included one project each for geotech and geotextiles, two projects each for protech, indutech, and sportech, and three projects each for meditech, smart, and e-textiles. Additionally, there were five projects related to sustainable textiles. The institutes and research bodies leading these projects included BTRA, ATIRA, IIT Delhi, IIT Jammu, NIT Jalandhar, IIT Kharagpur, CSIR New Delhi, IIT Madras, among others.
During the 7th MSG meeting of the National Technical Textiles Mission in New Delhi, Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Textiles, stressed the importance of the industry’s proactive and robust engagement for the indigenous development of technical textiles in India. He emphasised the significance of research and development for highly imported technical textiles items globally and for reducing dependence on imports for technical textiles items and specialty fibres within India. The Minister reviewed the progress of various components of the National Technical Textiles Mission, including sanctioned R&D products, R&D projects in mission mode, the formation of a committee for startups in technical textiles under GREAT guidelines, as well as outreach activities and events. These events included the 6th edition of the MOT-FICCI-BIS National conclave on standards & regulations and the Meditex conference scheduled for July and September 2023, respectively.
Furthermore, Minister Goyal also evaluated the progress made in the field of education, training, and skill development. A total of 26 applications from 15 public and 11 private institutes, amounting to Rs 151.02 crore, were approved. These funds were allocated for introducing new papers, procuring laboratory infrastructure, and training trainers across various application areas of technical textiles.