Udeshi conferred with SRTEPC Lifetime Achievement Award

The Synthetic & Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council (SRTEPC), one of the oldest export promotion councils in India, recently gave away export awards in a function held on January 27, 2018 in Mumbai. Present during the occasion was: Smriti Zubin Irani, Union Minister of Textiles & Information and Broadcasting; Ajay Tamta, Union Minister of State for Textiles; Anant Kumar Singh, Secretary, Textiles; Dr Kavita Gupta, Textile Commissioner; Rughani, Vice Chairman; Anil Rajvanshi, Convenor, Export Award Committee; and Rajen Udeshi of Reliance Industries.

SRTEPC has conferred Rajen Udeshi, President – Polyester Chain, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and President Association of Synthetics Fibre Industry – with SRTEPC Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding contribution in the development and growth of manmade fibre and fabric industry in India. SRTEPC also awarded RIL with series of awards for its exceptional performance in exports of fibres and yarns.

RIL has been honoured for its best export performance in the category of overall exports, polyester staple fibre, continuous yarn and fibre and yarn exports to Latin American and African countries. Udeshi, a member RIL’s leadership management team for over three decades, has played a key role in the growth of RIL’s polyester chain business.

Other winners include: Rahul Gupta, Wholetime Director, Wellknown Polyesters Limited receiving the Fourth Best Overall Export Performance Award for 2016-17; Ashutosh Sharma, Vice President, Yarn Export Marketing, RSWM, receiving the Third Best Overall Export Performance Award for 2016-17; Sanjay Kumar Verma, President and Global Sales Head, Birla Cellulose, Grasim Industries, receiving the Second Best Overall Export Performance Award for 2016-17; and Mukund Kothari, Head of Exports, Polyester Sector, Reliance Industries, receiving the Best Overall Export Performance Award for 2016-17.

Technical textiles, a potential sector: Chairman SRTEPC

During the award function, welcome address was given by Narain Aggarwal, Chairman, SRTEPC. During his speech, Aggarwal, said, “On export front, current financial year has been better than the previous year for us. Exports during April-November 2017-18 were $3,553 million in value terms against $3,309 million during the corresponding period of previous year, witnessing a growth of 7.37 per cent. The Ministry of Textiles, Government of India has set an ambitious export target of $7.53 billion for the current Financial Year for us. The export target is envisaged by about 20 per cent growth in 2017-18 from the exports achieved during 2016-17. So far, during April–November 2011, about 50 per cent of the export target has been achieved. However, the prevailing uncertainties and challenges in the indirect taxation under the GST regime, I am bit worried as to how the export target would be achieved. No doubt that in spite of various current odds and challenges, the member-companies of the Council have been working very hard and constantly to cover an extra mile in exports. I am optimistic that all of their efforts would yield desired results.”

He added, “During 2016-17, we could achieve an export turnover of $5.85 billion against $5.79 billion in the previous year, registering a moderate growth of 1.5 per cent. Exports of fibre, yarn and made-ups shown have shown growth of 8.49 per cent, 7.91 per cent and 3.27 per cent respectively, whereas exports of fabrics declined by 7.59 per cent last year.” Chairman added, “Technical textiles is a sunrise sector and has a bright future. The Government has also been giving consistent support to this industry which has resulted in the unprecedented growth of the technical textile sector. This sector has tremendous potential, which needs to be tapped. Weaving is also another field where there is immense scope of growth. The Council has been in the process of setting up a technical textile cell within the Council. Council is also planning to set up offices in the textile hubs like Coimbatore, Ludhiana and Bhilwara. More such offices in prominent textile centres are on the anvil.”

Awards won by RIL

• SRTEPC lifetime Achievement Award being conferred on Rajen Udeshi
• Award for Best Overall Export Performance in the Category of SRTEPC Special Award (Gold Trophy)
• Award for Best Export Performance in the Category of Polyester Staple Fibre (Gold Trophy)
• Award for Best Export performance in the Category of Continuous Yarn (Gold Trophy)
• Award for Best Export Performance in the Category of Exports of fibre/yarn to ‘Focus LAC’ Countries (Gold Trophy)
• Award for Best Export Performance in the Category of Exports of fibre/yarn to ‘Focus Africa’ Countries (Gold Trophy)