Need to emphasise use of jute on infra projects: Smriti Irani

Pitching for diversifications of jute products, Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani said there is a need to emphasise on the golden fibre to be used for the purposes of building infrastructure.

"We are the biggest producer of jute. But why would not we compete at the same level with Bangladesh? If you look at the Bangladesh business model, they have diversified jute products.

"On the Indian jute Industry, why would not you diversify in terms of product range as much as the Bangladesh does? The industry said the problem begins with the quality of raw jute," she said on Tuesday late evening at an interactive session organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce.

It only happens when the quality of raw jute improves, which again will happen on account of farmers getting superior quality seeds, Irani said, adding that the Jute ICARE initiative, that aims to double the farmers' income, had been launched.

"There has to be a composite development in the entire supply chain," she said.

According to Irani, Jute has been used for building of roads and studies have validated the life-span of the roads increases with the use of jute materials and the golden fibre has also been effective in holding soil erosion.

"While we look at jute being used for making ladies bag or card holder, we need to emphasise on jute to be used for purposes of building infrastructure purposes like roads and river embankment," she said.

Irani also said she was in favour of standardisation of technical textiles.

"Our definition technical textiles varies from international definition. Hence, I have asked industry associations to come up with definition, parameters which are applicable and acceptable internationally.

"When we talk about influencing the global markets, your standard has to be same with international standard. Then, the acceptability increases," she said.

Citing an example how anti-dumping measures to tackle the dumping of jute from Bangladesh helped the domestic industry, Irani said the industry must provide information to Director General of Foreign Trade regarding dumping.

Speaking on cotton, she said the biggest challenge in the cotton industry lies in the picking site because there is lot of contamination of cotton.

--IANS

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