Textile ind likely to grow to $115-bn by 2012

The Indian textile industry is estimated to grow over two fold to $115-billion by 2012, a senior government official said.

"The textile industry in the country is estimated to reach $115-billion by 2012 from the present $50 billion, Union Textile Commissioner A B Joshi told PTI.

The Textile Ministry is also pursuing Foreign Trade Agreements with the US and Europe and almost 40 per cent of total revenue is expected to come from these countries in the next three-years, Joshi said.

The government is also looking at markets across Russia, China, South-East Asia, Middle-East, Japan and Latin America to promote India's textile exports, he said.

It is expected that India's share of textile exports to the world would also increase from the current 4 per cent to around 7 per cent during this period.

According to estimates that country's textile exports have shot up from $19.14-billion in 2006-07 to $22.13-billion in 2007-08, registering a growth of over 15 per cent.

The industry accounts for around 4 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), 14 per cent of industrial production and over 13 per cent of the country's total export earnings.