India is working to position itself as a go-to in the global manufacturing market and its new National Textile Policy promises to deliver on necessary improvements to make the sector more competitive.
The country expects the updated policy will yield $300 billion in exports by 2024-25 and create an additional 35 million jobs. For the 2013-14 fiscal year, India’s textile industry earned $41.57 billion from exports.
According to the Economic Times, India’s Union Minister Santosh Gangwar said the policy will also address critical issues facing the sector like inadequate skilled work force, lack of labor reforms and slow customs clearances. It will also provide a roadmap for best practices in the textile and clothing industry in the years ahead.
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Emphasizing the country’s need to create jobs and improve workers’ skills, Gangwar said at a conference on Tuesday, “Unfortunately, in this country we have more engineers but there is woeful shortage of skilled people,” the Economic Times reported.
India’s Ministry is also ensuring that work on 20 textile parks is expedited and that technology upgrades, which will see a 4,000 crore rupee investment ($642 million), will provide additional stimulus for the sector.
Amitabh Kant, secretary of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), who also spoke at the conference, said India’s government should remove service tax for the textile sector for five years so that the country can stay competitive in the global space and tap into new markets.
Entering into a free trade agreement with the EU, restoring interest rate subvention, identifying new ports for expediting exports with improved customs clearance and settling on a competitive labor cost, will all be key to keeping India relevant, Kant said. Otherwise, he cautioned, low-cost countries like Bangladesh and Taiwan will capture more market share.
The government is in the process of finalizing the textile policy for cabinet approval.
