Textile production picks up

The monthly Index of Industrial Production for textiles increased 7.8 per cent in August this year compared with the same month last year. The cumulative index for textiles from April to August this year has also gone up marginally — 1.1 per cent — from a year earlier. 

“This is the beginning of a new dawn, especially after the industry faced two back-to-back big economic reforms of demonetisation and implementation of GST,” said Sanjay Jain, chairman of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry.

Last year this time, implementation of GST was underway and it had affected production, he said. Production has risen mainly because of domestic market demand. The industry is now expected to attract fresh investments, having seen a slowdown on this front for two years. “We are working with the government to clear the technology upgradation fund scheme arrears,” he added.

In the south, industry sources said export enquiries were better this year over the last across the textile value chain. The demand is usually good from October to February and production also goes up during this period. If the TUFS arrears are cleared, investments will revive, the sources said.