How technical textiles propel industry forward

2023 continued to be a roller-coaster drive for textile business post pandemic. However, the last quarter unfolded with some of the remarkable economic indices which paved a way for jubilant entry in 2024.

With the economy crossing $ 4 trillion and national GDP clocking 5.9 per cent, the Indian industry indeed foresees a promising outlook at this economic backdrop for forthcoming New Year 2024.

More to this, all international monetary agencies, upgrading the economic indices for India has brought in tremendous credibility to the Indian economy.

The Indian Technical Textiles Industry, an already buoyant, high growth sunrise industry, has further propelled itself. It continues to be the choice of investors in all its 13 industry verticals which boasts a CAGR of 12 per cent and above.

The global market of technical textile is more than $ 212 billion and is growing to be $ 272 billion by 2027. This international trend reflects in the Indian technical textiles industry also, which is slated to grow from current $ 23 billion to $ 45 billion by 2027.

It is very heartening that the policy makers in Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, have ensured a great support & direction in form of various initiatives namely PM MITRA, Production Linked Incentives (PLI), formation of National Technical Textile Mission (NTTM) etc.

The emphasis of NTTM on Research & Development to boost primary research in the field of fibres, processes, and machineries is a remarkable infusion just in time for the growth of technology and knowledge based business of technical textiles.

The policy convergence & focus on technical textiles by the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India is incredible. Today, all across India, there is an unstinting effort to drive information & investment opportunity across the country through Technical Textile Conclaves and Exhibitions by MOT through NTTM. The investor friendly approach is bringing in tremendous dissemination of knowledge & growth opportunities of technical textile.

Indian Technical Textiles Association (ITTA) is in its 12th year of functioning. It is a 400+ member association of leading Technical Textiles manufacturers.
We are voice of the industry.

The ITTA has had a very eventful 2023;

• We have been on the forefront of advocacy with regards to Issues related rationalisation of import duty structures on high performance fibres – Carbon Fibres, UHMWPE, Nylon 6 6, IDY, Glass etc.
• We have contributed to BIS to form more than 100 standards on technical textiles
• We have been on forefront in formation of over 300 new HSN codes for Technical Textile Products.
• Our consistent involvement in promoting & addressing Industry Issues, got us recognition to formally conduct investment conclaves, events & promotions to promote technical textiles all over the country under funding from National Technical Textile Mission, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India
• 2023 saw us effectively conducting 3 major conclaves on protech (protective textiles), sporttech (sports textile) & agritech (agricultural textiles) partnering with the respective centres of excellences namely NITRA, WRA & SASMIRA
• ITTA also partnered with 61st Joint Technological Conference of Textile Research Associations (TRAs) held at BTRA Mumbai & also with many more associations namely CII, SAMA, TechTextil, FICCI etc
• ITTA conducted executive development and training program on technical textiles with focus on indutech, meditech, and protech. ITTA continues to build EDP of all 13 verticals in technical textiles
• We have been playing a pivotal role in QCO implementation.

The growth in technical textiles exports is a subject to work upon.

The genesis of technical textiles shows a huge absorption of the technical textiles products and related technology in field of packtech, geotech, buildtech, meditech, and protech in domestic market.

Out of the $ 23 billion technical textile market in India, our exports have been just around $ 3 billion. In real terms, international market is in waiting for Indian technical textile products. The technical textile products are expected to be highly compliant to International performance standards and it calls for product reliability. The nature of the business calls for building reliability image of the Indian manufacturing Industry.

Despite manufacturing in India is of high quality standards, it is the resounding communication, in the international market which is lacking. More so, effective communication is needed in multiple global markets in 13 different verticals. This is not a task for any single manufacturer, if we target for $ 100 billion exports.

The solution which we advocate is Destination India …….. for Technical Textiles, needs to be branded all over the world in the relevant, large markets and trade shows,

A nation branding approach in the technical textile international market is the action much needed.

Needless to mention, de-bottlenecking of import supply chain for the Technical Textile Input Materials is also an area to continually address upon time to time as needed. In true sense, the industry needs to be supported on the market front and ITTA over the last few years have seen acceptance of issues as above by policy makers and has been resolving them one by one. Our efforts will continue to make exports thrive.

The market challenges over and above relates to the international diplomacy as well wherein quick formalisation of Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with developed economies & market is need of the hour

Last but not the least, the fact remains………that building high growth business also calls for investments. The current policy on investment also needs to be more investor friendly and supportive.

India is the mature, democratic economy which is based on good fundamentals and policy frameworks which make all of us feel that we are here to grow as the largest economy in the world.

About the author:

Avinash Misar is the Chairman of the Indian Technical Textile Association (ITTA) and the Director & CEO, Advanced Material Division of Texport Syndicate India. Misar is a professional with industry experience of more than 3 decades. A Mechanical Engineer with an MMM from JBIMS-Mumbai, he has been CEO and has served on the board of various corporates across different industry verticals. His experience has been into Precision Engineering, IT Services & for the last two and half decades in textiles, apparels and technical textiles.