Textiles industry in India is one of the largest in the world with a huge raw material base and manufacturing strength across all value chains.The strength of India’s textiles industry lies both in the hand woven sector as well as mill sector. Traditional sectors like handloom, handicrafts and small scale power loom are the biggest source of employment for millions of people in rural and semi-urban areas. This industry contributes to 7% of industrial output in value terms, 2% of India’s GDP and 15% of the COUNTRY’S export earnings.
“Today’s competitive world demands quick- time response in shaping initiatives to address the challenges of growth and converting them into opportunities. To this end, the Ministry of Textiles has been working relentlessly to ensure a conducive policy environment, facilitating enabling editions for the industry and private entrepreneurs to set up units through its various policy initiatives and schemes.”
SILK INDUSTRY
Integrated Scheme for Development of Silk Industry:The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approvedthe Central Sector Scheme “Integrated Scheme for Development of Silk Industry” for three years from 2017-18 to 2019-20. The Scheme has four components:
Research & Development (R&D), training, transfer of technology and IT initiatives
Seed organizations and farmers’ extension centres
Coordination and market development for seed, yarn and silk products and
Quality Certification System (QCS) by creating amongst others a chain of silk testing facilities, farm based & post-cocoon technology up-gradation, and export brand promotion.
The story of silk begins with cocoons
The scheme with atotal allocation of Rs.2161.68 crore is expected to increase the silk production from the level of 30348 MTs during 2016-17 to 38500 MTs by the end of 2019-20 with the following interventions:
• Production of import substitute bivoltine silk to the tune of 8500 MTs per annum by 2020.
• R&D to improve productivity from the present level of 100 Kgs to 111 kgs of silk per hectare of plantation by the end of 2019-20.
• Large scale propagation of improved reeling machines (automatic reeling machine for mulberry, improved reeling and spinning machineries and Buniyaad reeling machines for Vanya silk) under Make in India programme to produce quality silk to cater to the market demand.
The scheme will promote women empowerment and livelihood opportunities for SC and ST and other weaker sections of the society. It will help to increase productive employment from 85 lakhs to 1 crore persons by 2020.The scheme aims to achieve self-sufficiency in silk production by 2022. To achieve this, production of high grade silk in India will reach 20,650 MTs by 2022 from the current level of 11,326 MTs thereby reducing imports to Zero. It is proposed to increase 4A grade silk from the current level of 15% to 25 % of mulberry production by 2020. The implementation strategy is clearly based on convergence at the State level with the schemes of other Ministers like MGNREGS of Rural Development, RKVY & PMKSY of Ministry of Agriculture, for maximizing benefits to the sericulturists. The R&D projects pertaining to disease resistant silkworm, host plant improvements, productivity enhancing tools and implements for reeling and waving will be done in cooperation with Ministries of Science and Technology, Agriculture and Human Resource Development (HRD).
New Races of Silk Worm Seed:
Central Silk Board (CSB) has notified newly developed races of silkworm seed of mulberry and Vanya silk for increasing the productivity of cocoons and to increase the income of the farmers engaged in sericulture. Silk worm breeds for specific agro-climatic condition are essential for increasing the productivity of cocoons.
Tropical Tasar Silkworm (BDR-10)race developed have 21% more productivity than the traditional Daba breed. Farmers can get upto 52 kg cocoons per 100 disease free layings (dfls). Thissilkworm breed will help the tribal farmers of Jharkhand, Chattishgarh, Odisha, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Maharastra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.
Multivoltine x Bivoltine Mulberry hybrid(PM x FC2)race of silkworm can produce 60 kg per 100 Dfls and the race is better than earlier race PM x CSR. Due to high quality silk and significant egg recovery, this race is suitable for the farmers of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Maharashtra.
Erisilkworm (C2)race can produce 247 numbers of Eri cocoons per 100 Dfls. This is suitable for the farmers in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Maharastra, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
Central Silk Board under the Ministry of Textiles is engaged in applied research for developing new breeds of races of silkworm seed and conducts extensive field trial before commercial use in the field.
INTEGRATED SKILL DEVELOPMENT SCHEME (ISDS):
‘Samarth’- Scheme for Capacity Building in Textile Sector:
Union Minister of Textiles, SmritiZubinIrani, chaired a meeting of stakeholders on Samarth – Scheme for Capacity Building in Textile Sector under the Skill India Mission in May, 2018 in New Delhi, to familiarize the stakeholders about the scheme and its guidelines. The broad objective of the new scheme is to skill the youth for gainful and sustainable employment in the textiles sector covering the entire value chain of textiles, excluding spinning and weaving.
The concerns of the stakeholders and challenges faced by them during implementation of the previous scheme were discussed in the meeting. Feedback from the concerned stakeholders on how the scheme can contribute and benefit the textiles industry and boost skill development was also discussed.
The guidelines of the scheme were released on 23rd of April 2018. The scheme was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on 20th of December 2017 with an outlay of Rs. 1300 crore. It is intended to provide demand driven, placement oriented National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) compliant skilling programmes to incentivize and supplement the efforts of the industry in creating jobs in the textiles sector. The scheme targets to train 10 lakh persons (9 lakh in organised and 1 lakh in traditional sector) over a period of 3 years (2017-20).
The Integrated Skill Development Scheme (ISDS) was introduced by the Ministry of Textiles as a pilot scheme in the last two years of XI Five Year Plan (FYP) with an outlay of Rs. 272 crore, including Rs. 229 crore as Government contribution with a physical target to train 2.56 lakh persons. The scheme was scaled up as main phase during the XIIth FYP with an allocation of Rs. 1,900 crore to train 15 lakh persons. The ISDS addresses the critical gap of skilled manpower in textile industry through industry-oriented training programmes. It is implemented through three components where major thrust is given to PPP mode where a partnership has been developed with the industry in establishing a demand-driven skilling ecosystem. The scheme has been largely aligned with the common norms of Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship.
Skill Development in Textiles sector
Total 11,14,545 persons were trained under the scheme mainly in apparel and garmenting (86%) with total expenditure of Rs. 935.17 crore, of which 8,43,082 persons (75.64%) were given employment in the textile sector.
Out of the persons trained in last 4 years, more than 70% were women, 22.69% were from SC category and 7.22% were from ST Category.
Making a Difference Through Skilling:
Textiles sectors employs over 45 million people.
Additional requirement of about 17 million by the year 2022.
In the last four years 8.58 lakh persons trained in partnership with 58 Government and industry partners.
The Samarth guidelines have been issued on 23.04.2018 and RFP for empanelment of Implementing Partners has been floated on 21.05.2018.
HANDLOOM SECTOR
A weaver working at her loom
Block Level Clusters (BLCs):
Block Level Clusters (BLCs) are one of the components of National Handloom Development Programme (NHDP)/Comprehensive Handloom Cluster Development Scheme (CHCDS). 412 BLCs covering 3,18,347 beneficiaries have been sanctioned since July, 2015 with project cost of Rs. 557.59 crore.Rs. 212.77 crore has been released as Central share. Financial assistance is provided upto Rs.2.00 crore per cluster for various interventions like skill up-gradation, HathkarghaSamvardhanSahayata, product and design development, construction of workshed, lighting unit and setting up of Common Facility Centre (CFC).Besides, financial assistance upto Rs.50.00 lakh is available for setting up of one dye house at district level.
Weaver Mudra Scheme:
Under the Weaver Mudra Scheme, credit at concessional interest rate of 6% is being provided to the handloom weavers. Margin money assistance to a maximum of Rs. 10,000 per weaver and credit guarantee for a period of 3 years is also provided. 81,615 MUDRA loans worth Rs. 443.52 crore have been sanctioned under the scheme. MUDRA platform adopted in September, 2016 for providing concessional credit.Procedure for loan application on MUDRA platform is user friendly for withdrawal of loan amount using RuPay card through ATMs.
Handloom Weaver Mudra Portal:
This portal isoperation from 1stof April, 2017, in association with Punjab National Bank to cut down delays in disbursement of funds for financial assistance. Bank claims worth Rs. 25 crore have been settled through this portal. Participating banks submit the claim for margin money, interest subvention and credit guarantee fee on the portal and the margin money is transferred directly to loan account of the weaver and interest subvention and credit guarantee fee is transferred to banks in electronic mode.
India Handloom Brand:
Sales of handloom products to the tune of Rs.582.93 crore has been generated as on 31.10.2018. 1185 registrations have been issued under 122 product categories. The India Handloom Brand was launched by the Prime Minister on First National Handloom Day on 7th August 2015 for branding of high quality handloom products, authentic designs with zero defect and zero effect on environment.
BunkarMitra:
A toll free helpline no. 18002089988 was set up to deal with queries of handloom weavers. 22,033 queries of handloom weavers concerning wide range of issues like technical, supply of raw material, quality control, credit facility, access to market linkages were resolved upto 30.11.2018 through theBunkarMitra Helpline. The Helpline, set upin April 2017, provides single point contact to handloom weavers across the country for addressing their professional queries 7 days a week. Services are available through toll-free number in seven languages: Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Assamese and Kannada.
Common Service Centres (CSCs):
MoU was signed on 7th August 2017 with M/s CSC e- Governance Services India Limited to set up Common Service Centres (CSCs) to provide IT-enabled services, including e-commerce. Each CSC is set up @Rs. 3,78,400/- in handloom pockets, clusters and 28 Weavers’ Service Centres (WSCs). Of 162 CSCs sanctioned so far, 129 CSCs are functional.
Handlooms Promotion through e-Marketing:
To promote e-marketing of handloom products, 21 e-commerce entities have been engaged for on – line marketing of handloom products. So far, total sales of Rs. 21.25 crores have been generated. To empower the weavers, and their families for career progression, memorandums of Understanding signed with Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS). Ministry is providing reimbursement of 75% of the fee in NIOS/IGNOU courses for SC, ST, BPL and women learners.
POWERLOOM SECTOR
A comprehensive scheme for power loom sector development‘PowerTex’ India with an outlay of Rs.487.07 crore was launched all over the country in in January 2017. The component wise achievements till November2018 are:
In-situ Upgradation of Plain Powerlooms: 197775 looms were upgraded and Rs.248.77 crores released.
Group Workshed Scheme (GWS):1034 projects approved and Rs.85.64 crores released.
Yarn Bank Scheme:73 Yarn Bank projects approved and Rs.23.263 crores released.
Common Facility Centre (CFC):20 projects have been approved and Rs.3.944 crores released.
Facilitation, IT, Awareness, Market Development and Publicity for PowerLoom Schemes: Rs.15.779 crores released.
Tex Venture Capital Fund:Rs.9.34 crore has been disbursed by SVCL to four companies so far.
Grant-in-Aid to Powerloom Service Centres:Rs.22.99 crores released.
Modernisation of Powerloom Service Centres: Rs.3.39 crores released.
A dedicated website www.ipowertexindia.gov.inhas been launched for applying various scheme under PowerTex India. Online portal and mobile app operational from 1.12.2017.Beneficiary can track the status online on Mobile app.

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