The eagerly anticipated conclusion of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the UK is anticipated to provide a significant boost to the textile industry.
The Government was examining India’s potential to become the world’s largest textile hub by developing indigenous technology and textile machinery for the Indian textile industry. They aimed to reduce dependence on imports and explore free trade agreements to bolster India’s textile sector’s global presence. The eagerly anticipated conclusion of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the UK was anticipated to provide a significant boost to the textile industry.
Piyush Goyal, the Commerce and Industry Minister Public Distribution, emphasised the need to scale up indigenous textile technologies and modern machines through research and development (R&D) and innovation. He expressed pride in Tamil Nadu, Coimbatore, and India for their efforts in this regard. This announcement was made during the 11th edition of a global gathering of leading players in the Asian textile industry, input suppliers, and service providers known as ATEXCON, held in Coimbatore. The event drew attention to various business aspects, including both regional and global issues relevant to the textile sector.
The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) initiated the gathering, bringing together the entire textile value chain to discuss issues and the roadmap for the Indian textile industry. It was noted that the Indian textile industry had made significant progress in exports, with the delivery of approximately 776 billion worth of textile goods worldwide during 2022-23. This represented an increase of about 55 per cent in just two years.
Furthermore, discussions at ATEXCON highlighted that the Indian textile industry primarily focused on improving the supply chain, encompassing the 5Fs: farm to fibre, fibre to factory, factory to fashion, and fashion to foreign. Investments in various departments, particularly research and development, had led to improvements in the overall performance of textiles used in the industry.