Skilled labour & high tech vital to boost tech textiles in India

Adoption of high technology and skilling labour are the two of a few routes that India should take to to achieve success in technical textiles, said Michael Jänecke, Director (Brand Management) Technical Textiles & Textile Processing, Messe Frankfurt and Raj Manek, Managing Director at Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India Pvt Ltd during an informal chat with Samuel Joseph, Editor of Indian Textile Journal recently in Mumbai.

Said Janecke: “India needs to work on investment and technologies, as far as growth in technical textiles is concerned. The second important thing is the industry should develop new products and should shun copying to produce cheaper goods for the market. The Indian market is huge, and industry must develop this local market by listening to its needs closely.”

Techtextil India started in 2007. Said Janecke:

“We are truly international. Dynamics and initiatives are already there in the Indian market. The country needs to have more joint efforts and also greater exposure to international trends. The demand today is for global technologies, especially from Europe and the trend is showing signs of growth in India.”

“We can support companies in their marketing efforts though we cannot create markets. We are here to develop Indian markets. Our competence is in bringing the global technologies to the Indian doorsteps. India has vast potential but only a little has been realised so far,” said Janecke.

Said Janecke: “The areas that hold high potential are civil engineering, and then comes farming, where agrotech holds immense scope, India being an agricultural country. Mobiltech is also showing greater opportunities apart from Protech in India. Texprocess was a great success in Frankfurt and Atlanta and hence we plan to integrate this into Techtextil India in the future. We are waiting for the feedback after this experimental introduction of Texprocess this time.”

Manek expressed the optimism that Indian companies should go for high-tech machinery from Germany.

“The German companies are very keen to enter the Indian market in a big way, and that is why they have a huge presence, with about 30 companies in the Germany pavilion itself at the Techtextil India. Many German companies have already made their presence in India.

The Amann Group is very much here. Even medium-sized companies, which have a cautious approach presently, are excited about the Indian market with its huge potential,” Manek said.

Added Manek: “German companies are strong in technologies. Good raw material base and some skilled labour in the Indian market are attracting these companies. There is a vacuum between the aspirations of the Indian companies and what they can actually invest in machinery and technologies. Good technologies are expensive, and the mindset must change. The Government is promoting the technical textiles and the push should go on and on.” Saying that “agrotech, geotech and meditech are the 3 areas where India can go for big investment in the near future. Packtech, indutech and protech are the other potential areas for India,”, Manek stressed that education and awareness are very important to promote technical textiles in India. He cited the example of the Germany-based Amann Group, which started on a small scale, but today has interests in apparel, shoes & leather, embroidery, home interior and automotive textiles.

Manek concluded: “ India has a good stock of labour, but what it needs is to train them in skilled work. When you bring technologies, there will be always loss of some labour, but training can rehabilitate some part of the labour. Without modernisation, upgradation and high technologies, our country cannot meet international standards, particularly in technical textiles.”