Mill-made fabrics: Gujarat tops the list

Gujarat has emerged as the leader in the mill-made fabrics with a production of over 316 million square metres of mill-made fibre during April, 2004, to January, 2005, accounting for over 33 per cent share of the country's total production.

The state is followed by Maharashtra with a production of 312 million square metres, accounting for 32 per cent of the country's total production.

The production of mill-made fabrics in the state increased by 5.53 per cent to 33.6 million square metres in January, compared with 1.09 per cent of fall in January 2004, according to a latest data released by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy.

"Gujarat has traditionally been leader in the mill-made fabrics segment, however with the changes in government and industrial policies in the last few years, has led to closure of many textile mills. Now with the opening up of quotas and progressive government policies, Gujarat has over taken Maharashtra in the production of mill-made fibre," Chandan Chatterjee, general manager, projects, Industrial Extension Bureau (Indextb) told Business Standard.

Even, the production of spun yarn grew 3.71 per cent to 19,900 tonne during January, 2005, an increase of 0.31 per cent recorded in the same month a year ago.