Govt approves 18 R&D projects of technical textiles worth Rs 46.74 crore

Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday chaired the 7th meeting of the Mission Steering Group of National Technical Textiles Mission, and 18 R&D projects worth Rs 46.74 crore were approved, according to an official statement.

The cleared projects include those under key strategic areas of Geotech, Protech, Indutech, Sustainable Textiles, Sportech, Smart E-Textiles and Meditech segments.

The textiles minister said the industry's proactive and robust engagement is essential for the indigenous development of technical textiles in India.

Goyal also reviewed the progress of different components of the National Technical Textiles Mission, including review of sanctioned R&D products, R&D projects in Mission mode, formation of a committee for Startups in technical textiles under GREAT Guidelines and certain outreach activities and events.

Emphasis should be on R&D for globally highly imported technical textiles items, apart from import-dependent technical textiles items and speciality fibres in India, Goyal said.

Besides, the progress on the education and training & skill development front was also reviewed by the minister wherein 26 applications from 15 public and 11 private institutes, valuing Rs 151.02 crore, were approved for introducing papers, procuring laboratory infrastructure and training of trainers across different application areas of technical textiles.

"Ministry of Textiles approved 18 R&D projects worth Rs 46.74 crore across key strategic areas of Geotech, Protech, Indutech, Sustainable Textiles, Sportech, Smart E-Textiles, Meditech segments during the 7th MSG meeting," the textiles ministry said in the statement.

Among these 18 R&D projects, 14 are high-value projects, 3 are prototype grant projects, and 1 is ideation grant project.

The projects covering different application areas of technical textiles, including 1 project from Geotech, 2 of Protech, 2 Indutech, 2 Sportech, 5 Sustainable Textiles, 3 Meditech, 3 Smart & E-Textiles and 1 Geotextiles were approved.

The approved projects were led by institutes and research bodies like BTRA, ATIRA, IIT Delhi, IIT Jammu, NIT Jalandhar, IIT Kharagpur, CSIR New Delhi, and IIT Madras, among others.