Increase in export to third-world countries: TMMA AGM

The Textile Machinery Manufacturers’ Association (TMMA), Mumbai organised its annual general meeting (AGM) on September 27, 2018 at Hotel Trident, Mumbai. Sanjay K Jain, Chairman Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI), was the chief guest for the evening.

During his speech, Mehul Trivedi, Chairman, TMMA, said “Indian economy is showing signs of recovery on the back of strong support from all sectors. India has inched up its position to become the 6th largest economy in the world overtaking France.”

He provided an overall economic scenario. He said, “The Financial year 2017-18 has been a challenging year for India’s economy. The implementation of structural reforms including, demonetisation and GST had an impact on the GDP growth. The growth was slow, down to four-year low at 6.7 per cent in fiscal year 2017-18.

The GDP was 7.1 per cent in 2016-17 against 8 per cent in 2015-16. It was 7.5 per cent in 2014-15. However, the various proactive initiatives taken by the Government enabled the textile/ textile engineering industry to mitigate the challenges and revive from the recession. India’s GDP is expected to grow at 7.5 per cent in the next two years.”

He added, “The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) was dipped by 4.3 per cent in 2017-18 as against 4.6 per cent in 2016-17. The manufacturing growth stood at 4.5 per cent in 2017-18 as against 4.4 per cent in 2016-17. The capital goods sector with an unfavorable base effect showed a year on year contraction of 1.8 per cent in March 2018 as against an increase of 9.4 per cent in March 2017. The sector is showing signs of revival which is likely to improve in 2018 due to increase in capacity utilisation, productivity, orders, sales and investments.”

“Exports too are poised to grow at a faster pace in the current fiscal year. India’s exports after a gap of 6 year rose by 9.8 per cent to US$ 302.84 billion during 2017-18 as against US$ 275.80 billion in 2016-17. During 2017-18 imports increased by 20 per cent to $459.70 billion as against $384.40 billion in 2016-17,” added Trivedi. During the event, Export Promotion and R&D Awards was given. Winners of the awards were: Saurer Textile Solutions Pvt Ltd, Vadodara with Apex Export Award; Rieter India for machinery sector; InspirOn Engineering, Ahmedabad for Parts & Accessories sector; Premier Evolvics, Coimbatore for Textile Testing, Monitoring & Controlling Instruments sector; Lakshmi Machine Works Ltd, Coimbatore for spinning machinery sector; Yamuna Machine Works Ltd., Mumbai for processing machinery sector; and Lakshmi Card Clothing Mfg, Coimbatore for Parts and Accessories Sector. Coimbatore-based LMW also won the Research & Development award for their innovation in “Draw Frame LDF 3”.