New textile policy likely after Budget

The much awaited new textile policy is likely to be announced after the budget, Textile Commissioner Kiran Soni Gupta said here.
"The new textile policy is almost ready and is expected to be announced immediately after the Union Budget. We had comprehensive detailed discussions with various stake holders," Gupta told reporters after inaugurating the 60th National Garment Fair organised by CMAI here.
The policy will give a direction to the textile sector and act as a huge support to it. It (the policy) has outlined all the aspects - the vision, strategy and the action plan, she said.
Clothing Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI) president Rahul Mehta said that the country's apparel exports are likely to touch USD 17 billion in FY15 as compared to USD 14.7 billion last year.

In 2014-15, the growth rate of domestic garment market will be 10 to 12 per cent, while the growth rate of export market would be 18 to 20 per cent, Mehta said.
The growth in Indian textile sector was due to improvement in dollar-rupee parity, which has become favourable for the industry because of downtrend in Chinese economy and reduced competition from Bangladesh, he said.

Commenting on textile parks development programme, Gupta stated that 61 textile parks have been sanctioned, out of which 55 are presently operating.
Further, 13 textile parks are under consideration. Some of the textile Parks, like the ones at Visakhapatnam and Coimbatore, have shown excellent performance.

Technical textiles have very bright future. There has been good demand with good scope for the industry to expand the production capacity, Gupta said.
The government has been promoting North-East region with focus on agro-textiles and geo-textiles, she added.
The B2B garment fair has 260 stalls displaying over 300 brands of summer collection. It covers men's wear, women's wear, kids wear, ethnic wear, intimate wear, etc. A footfall of 20,000 trade visitors is expected during the fair, Mehta said.