“The whole world is going back to basics. People want clothes made of natural colour. The world is asking for specific things. Please come out of this psyche that ‘India itself is a big market, so what is the need to export,” Modi said.
People in Africa want greater width in clothing. Indian weavers can supply to them in their colours. Likewise, there are gypsy people spread across Europe, who wear clothing similar to what people wear in border areas in Rajasthan and Gujarat. This market can be captured by the Indian textile industry.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today inaugurated Bharat Tex 2024—a mega global event, urging the Indian textile industry to boost exports and cater to global demands.
He gave examples of making natural colour clothes and catering to specific needs of African and European markets, highlighting opportunities for supplying beyond the domestic market.
“Today’s event is very special because it is happening concurrently in India’s two largest exhibition centres, with more than 3500 exhibitors and 40,000 plus trade visitors. This provides a platform for joining technology with traditions. It brings together style, sustainability, and skill. Just like a loom joins several threads, this event is bringing together several countries of the world,” said Modi.
Pashmina shawl of Kashmir, Patola of Gujarat, Kadhai of Kutch, Sambalpuri of Odisha, Chikankari of Lucknow, etc show how much valuable is India’s textile tradition.
“The textile sector is aware of our aspirations and challenges. India’s aspiration to become a developed country in the next 25 years is based on four pillars – poor, farmers, youth and woman – and the country’s textile sector involves all of these. Our focus is on tradition, talent, training and technology,” Modi added.
He stressed on the need to bring newness in design. He said that based on 5F vision – Farm to Fibre to Factory to Fashion to Foreign – the government is focusing on farmers, weavers, MSMEs, and exports.
Talking about PM MITRA parks, the Prime Minister said that it is an attempt to bring the entire textile value chain together at one place, where modern ecosystem can be made available under plug and play system, which will reduce logistics cost.
Speaking about khadi, he said, in the last 10 years the fabric has become a symbol of development and employment. He said that as a result of new experiments, khadi’s sale has grown, but only in India. Khadi is yet to become global; it has the capacity to sell in the entire world.
On technical textiles, he said the National Technical Textiles Mission (NTTM) has been launched to increase the country’s capacity. “We want that machinery for technical textiles be produced in the country. We have also launched guidelines for encouraging startups in technical textiles,” Modi said.
‘Vocal for Local’ and ‘Local to Global’ have today become main mantras. In 2014, the total valuation of India’s textile sector was less than ₹7 lakh crore. Today it is more than ₹12 lakh crore. Moreover, new BIS standards are helping in maintaining quality.
Remembering the contribution of the textile sector during COVID-19, the Prime Minister said that the country’s textile sector came forward and in record time our country supplied masks and PPE kits not only to the domestic market, but also to several other nations. This gives faith that the industry has the capacity to quickly make India a global textile export hub.
The Prime Minister also stressed on the need for brining various textile bodies together, who can put forward comprehensive suggestions to the government.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RKS)
