Praveen Kumar Singh: At Luwa, we approach sustainability from multiple angles
Luwa stands for well-engineered, innovative systems, plants, and solutions for textile and other industries. Their fields of activity include textile air engineering, industrial air engineering, eco engineering, control engineering–on the highest level, compliant to Swiss standards. Praveen Kumar Singh, Managing Director, Luwa India, in this interview, discusses whether the Indian textile machinery industry measures up to global standards and highlights the key innovations introduced by his company recently.
How would you describe the current state of the Indian textile machinery industry?
The Indian textile machinery industry is at a pivotal stage of transformation. Over the past decade, the sector has moved from being largely import-dependent to building indigenous capabilities that meet the needs of both domestic and regional markets. We see increasing investments in modernisation, with mills shifting away from legacy systems towards equipment that offers higher efficiency, reliability, and environmental compliance. However, the industry is also characterised by dual realities. On the one hand, sectors like spinning, weaving, knitting and processing have become highly competitive and are aligning with global benchmarks. On the other, advanced areas such as automation, smart controls, and sustainable manufacturing solutions are still developing. This gap presents a unique opportunity: India has the scale, talent, and cost advantage to leapfrog into a position of global leadership if investments continue to flow into technology and innovation. The next five years will be decisive, favouring those who adopt advanced, resource-efficient systems that shape the future of Indian textiles, both domestically and globally.
What are the biggest challenges your company and the broader machinery sector are currently facing?
The biggest challenge today is the pressure to deliver more with less. Mills face rising energy costs, tighter environmental norms, and increasing global competition. For machinery suppliers like us, that means creating solutions that simultaneously improve productivity, reduce emissions, and lower lifecycle costs. Another challenge lies in the adoption curve. While many leading mills are quick to embrace automation and sustainable systems, a large segment of the industry still hesitates due to upfront investment concerns. Bridging this gap—by demonstrating strong ROI, offering modular solutions, and providing long-term service support—is critical. Finally, supply chain dynamics remain a constraint. Geopolitical shifts, material availability, and logistics disruptions, all these affect delivery timelines and costs. At Luwa, we mitigate this by leveraging both our Swiss engineering expertise and our strong local manufacturing base in India, which ensures reliability, shorter lead times, and cost-effectiveness for our customers.
How competitive are Indian-made textile machines compared to global standards in terms of technology, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness?
Indian textile machinery manufacturers have advanced considerably in the past decade. In areas such as spinning preparation and weaving accessories, the technology now matches international standards, delivering reliable performance and robust cost-efficiency. That said, there are still areas where the global gap remains, particularly in automation, energy optimisation, and smart control systems. This is where Luwa plays a pivotal role. By combining Swiss precision engineering and innovation with India’s manufacturing and cost advantages, we provide solutions that are globally benchmarked for quality and efficiency while remaining commercially viable for domestic and regional mills. This synergy ensures that Indian mills do not have to compromise between performance and affordability.
How is sustainability being integrated into textile machinery design and manufacturing in your company?
Sustainability today is no longer a choice; it has become a responsibility and a competitive necessity. At Luwa, we approach sustainability from multiple angles. Our energy-efficient axial flow fans, advanced filtration systems, and intelligent DigiControl platforms are engineered to reduce electricity consumption, optimise airflows, and extend equipment lifetime. Beyond energy savings, our solutions help mills minimise dust emissions, recycle fibre waste, and conserve precious resources like water. Importantly, we design keeping lifecycle sustainability in mind: from the initial installation through decades of operation, our systems continue to deliver environmental and economic benefits. This long-term approach not only helps customers comply with tightening environmental regulations but also strengthens their profitability by reducing resource costs.
What steps has your company taken towards automation, and how has it impacted your customer’s production and efficiency?
Automation is a cornerstone of our strategy to make textile mills smarter, leaner, and more resilient. Our DigiControl 7 platform exemplifies this approach by offering customers real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance alerts, and data-driven process optimisation. The results are tangible: mills achieve consistently high air quality, greatly reduced manual intervention, and significant reductions in downtime. These improvements translate directly into enhanced fabric quality, higher machine availability, and reduced operating costs. In fact, many of our customers have appreciated our automation system and they see it as a move from being a cost centre to a profit enabler—because fewer breakdowns, smoother operations, and optimised energy usage directly boost competitiveness.
Could you share some of the key innovations or technological advancements your company has recently introduced?
Our innovation agenda is guided by a simple principle: addressing customer challenges through engineering excellence. One recent milestone is our axial flow fans with carbon-fibre blades. These deliver the same airflow performance as conventional designs, but thanks to a hub engineered for lightweight integration, the fan assembly weighs over 60 per cent less than aluminium versions. This significant weight reduction lowers motor strain, cuts energy use, and makes installation and handling far easier. Another advancement is our Multi-cell filtration systems, which require only 1/3rd of the space as compared to rotary filters while still meeting the world’s most stringent emission standards. For maintenance teams, we’ve also introduced quick-change coupling mechanisms that make servicing faster, safer, and more predictable. Each one of these innovations stems from direct dialogue with mill owners and operators. By listening to concerns about space constraints, high energy costs, and maintenance delays, we’ve been able to transform those pain points into practical, forward-looking solutions.
Looking ahead, what opportunities and growth areas do you foresee for Indian textile machinery manufacturers in the domestic and global markets?
The Indian textile sector stands at an inflection point. Domestically, the key growth driver will be modernisation—replacing legacy systems with new-generation, energy-efficient, automated, and sustainable alternatives. This shift is fuelled by both rising cost pressures and stricter environmental norms. Globally, Indian manufacturers are well-positioned to serve emerging markets in South Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where mills demand machinery that balances affordability with reliability. For Luwa, the opportunity lies in bridging the best of both worlds – leveraging global innovation while ensuring accessibility and service support tailored to local needs. Our vision is to make Indian mills globally competitive while contributing to India’s ambition of being recognised not just as the world’s largest textile producer, but also as a global textile technology leader.
