- Technical textiles are functional fabrics that have applications across various industries including automobiles, civil engineering and construction, agriculture, healthcare, industrial safety, personal protection etc.
- Based on usage, there are 12 technical-textile segments; Agrotech, Meditech, Buildtech, Mobiltech, Clothtech, Oekotech, Geotech, Packtech, Hometech, Protech, Indutech and Sportech.
- Use of these textiles have benefits of increased productivity in agriculture, horticulture and aquaculture fields, better protection of military, para-military, police and security forces, stronger and sturdier transportation infrastructure for highways, railways, ports and airports and in improving hygiene and healthcare of general public. In India, technical -textiles hold immense growth opportunities both for the industry as well as across various applications.
National Technical Textiles Mission
The Government has announced a National Technical Textiles Mission at an estimated outlay of ₹1,480 crore that can help the industry take advantage of the growing demand in the domestic market and reverse the trend of increasing imports.
- It aims to position the country as a global leader in these textiles and increase the use of technical- textiles in the domestic market.
- The Mission will aim at taking domestic market size to $40 billion to $50 billion by 2024.
- A Mission Directorate will be operational in the Ministry of Textiles.
- It will be implemented for four years starting from 2020-2021 and will have four components-
- First component: It will focus on research, development and innovation with an outlay of ₹1,000 crores.
- Second component: It will be for the promotion and development of the market for these textiles.
- Third component: It will focus on export promotion so that technical textile exports from the country reach from the ₹14,000 crores to ₹20,000 crores by 2021-2022 and ensure 10% average growth every year till the Mission ends.
- An export promotion council for these textiles will be set up.
- Fourth component: It will focus on education, training and skill development.
- The Mission will promote technical education at higher engineering and technology levels related to these textiles and its application areas.