Speaking at the 65th AGM of TMMA, Mr. Rohit Kansal, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, called for greater self-reliance in textile machinery manufacturing and outlined a roadmap for innovation, sustainability, and investment-led expansion.
My esteemed colleague and Textile Commissioner, Ms. M. Beena; TMMA Chairman Mr. M. Sankar; Incoming team led by the Chairman, Mr. Prashant Mangukia; the Vice Chairman, Mr. Chintan Thumar; Past Chairpersons; the award winners; and Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let me begin by thanking TMMA and all of you for inviting me and Dr. Beena to this event. As the primary user of textile machinery, the Ministry of Textiles is probably the most significant stakeholder of this organization. But I would deem it a stroke of bad luck that we never had an opportunity to interact with the organization, although we did see the office bearers in various forums or other stakeholder consultations. But it is a happy moment that we have met such a wide cross-section of such an important value chain, and for that I must thank TMMA for giving us this opportunity.
As I said, the Ministry of Textiles is the most important stakeholder as a user industry for an end user. And therefore, what happens in the textile sector is of great interest to all of you, and what happens to you is of great interest to all of us. We are a group that is based on symbiosis, and it is in the well-being and success of the user industry and the producer industry which is the key to the success of the entire ecosystem of the industry.
So, what is happening to the textile sector? Mr. Sankar mentioned in his report a number of developments over the past year. And in recent days there have been some causes of concern, some elements of difficulties and stress within the textile sector. Notwithstanding these difficulties, the overall outlook for the entire sector remains convincingly positive. We are a $176 billion ecosystem, of which $35–40 billion are exports. As you have noticed from the figures, unlike many other textile sectors around the world, India is not an economy that depends on exports. On the contrary, our domestic market is almost three-and-a-half times the size of the export market, and with a robust growth of 6–7%.
There is another significant fact about our textile sector which is, again, unlike many other textile markets — we are not a one-trick pony. We are one of the very few countries in the world which have the entire textile ecosystem, the entire value chain and its scale. If we talk about raw materials, we are probably the only country in the world which is a leader or second-largest producer of all raw materials, including man-made fibers. Whether it is MMF, yarn, fabric, or garments, we are either a large producer or a large exporter, or both. We are the largest producer of denim in the world. We have huge ability in spinning; we are the 3rd largest exporter of garments. In machinery, our spinning is world-class. So there are a large number of things which are consequential, and which are to be proud of in India textiles.
Not only that, we are also among the largest in engineering capabilities in the world — at every level, technical, managerial, entry level or senior level. We have the oldest history of textiles, whether textiles are made by hand, by primitive looms, advanced looms, or whether they will be made in dark factories using AI and robotics. India has been, and will continue to be, a leader.
We have ambitious plans. We plan to go from $176 billion to a $350 billion market including $100 billion of exports. In machinery, just 2 years ago we produced almost ₹15,000 crore worth of machinery including ₹4,500 crore of exports. So even in machinery we are not just a large producer but also a large exporter. But no country or ecosystem has succeeded by simply resting on their models. So, while we are happy about so many good things in textiles, we also must address the large number of challenges that we face today along with equally large number of opportunities before us.
But sitting on the wrong side of that is the fact that ₹17,000 crore worth of machinery we have imported too. So, our domestic machinery sector is able to cater to only 50% of our requirement. So, this is both an opportunity and a challenge. What will it take to transform this 50% to 60, 70, 80, 90 and also 100%?
We had the opportunity to listen to all of you in this meeting in a free and fair open discussion. And I am delighted with the exchange of ideas that took place today. And I assure you that no idea will go in vain, however critical — none will go unheard. We have recorded all the suggestions that you have given to us. But I also want to say that textiles is a complex value chain, where the producer of one part of the value chain is the consumer of another part, and the rest often contradict the interests of each other. Products have multiple users; therefore policy has to necessarily look from all fronts and work in such a fashion that it helps in the growth of the sector.
Particularly the textile machinery sector plays an important role in the Bharat we are creating — which is Atmanirbhar and a sign of assurance to the eyes of the world.
And I do want to assure you that although in the allocation of business, the route is through the Ministry of Heavy Industry, as an important stakeholder of the value chain, we will remain in focus. I spoke about looking at the future — and by looking at the future I mentioned how challenges come along with opportunities and how we need to convert challenges into opportunities and opportunities into success.
To take the industry from $176 to $350 billion, we have calculated that it will require $100 billion investment. With this investment, the opportunity is tremendous. Just 2 days ago the Hon’ble Prime Minister launched the largest integrated Textile Park in Dhar, Madhya Pradesh, and on the very first day the park was oversubscribed to the extent of 156%, which is 1.5 times more applications for allotment of land than the land available for the park, and 100% of the land has already been allotted to potential investors with an investment potential of ₹20,000 crore. By doing so, this ₹20,000 crore of investment is again a challenge for you, because there is no factory, no investment can be made unless there is machinery. Now how we want to produce this machinery within India is something you and we need to discuss and work out the possibility through which at least 50% of components can be successfully produced in India.
There are also other challenges and opportunities. At one point in time, sustainability was thought of as something that companies need to look at. Sustainability is not just something we need to look at; sustainability is something we need to build in — in printing, in designing, in execution. You can ask what sustainability has to do with machinery, because you may tell me that sustainability is everything for the user industry. No. Sustainability starts with the machinery. And how does it start? With machines that are more productive. We need to replace older machines with modern machines. We need machines that are efficient in power consumption, efficient in use of water, and we need machines that support the circular ecosystem — the recycling ecosystem — because if you are going to have the greatest demand in the next decade, it will be from machines that aid this circularity. Can we do textile-to-textile recycling? Can we do fibre-to-fibre, cotton-to-fibre? We need to work on these parameters to make this machinery available at cost efficiency. Because the world of tomorrow will be based on sustainability and circularity. This is the reason why we would like to have a stakeholder consultation with you.
There are three pillars of today’s stakeholder consultation. The first pillar is the technology roadmap that is going to drive our success to achieve the $350 billion mark. How can MSMEs build digitization, technology, and AI into their operations? How can elements of the value chain like forecasting, efficiency, and AI technology be brought in? This is something we need to think of. Therefore, the first project which we are doing is to build the technology of the future.
The second pillar is sustainability. As I said, how do we make our entire ecosystem, starting from the topmost level of the value chain, more sustainable? This also includes sustainability, circularity, decarbonization, capacity increase, and knowledge sharing — which must become a habit. For that, we must start preparing now.
We are working with different development partners to cover various aspects such as decarbonizing the value chain. And because we are so heavily MSME-dependent and they are already embracing sustainability, we want that revolution across the entire textile chain.
And the third point we wanted to discuss with you is about the nuts and bolts of manufacturing. For many years, we had an ATUFS scheme. It had some hits, some misses, some successes, some failures. So, what is the support that we can give you to build an efficient manufacturing textile ecosystem? This is the third pillar which we wanted to discuss with you.
We want to bring a National Textile Manufacturing Mission which will again lay out a path for a green, competitive textile ecosystem. We want to support the industry not just with policy and regulation but also with direct physical incentives.
So those are some questions which we at the ministry level are thinking about. And I do want to tell all of you that we would like to work very closely with you — to look at your problems, your challenges, and to build some potential solutions into the textile policies and schemes on which we are currently working .
We are also looking at issues like power, logistics, and finance, because we know that these are also the building blocks of the textile machinery manufacturing sector.
I am convinced that this is India’s time. And in India, with strength and presence across the value chain, the textile industry can leap much higher and achieve success. And you, as an upstream element of the entire value chain, are going to be at the forefront of this opportunity. We as a government are very happy to stand by you and support you in all your activities. Two years ago, we facilitated the industry to start BharatTex to bring the entire value chain on one platform. My appeal to all of you is to align with this initiative through BharatTex and find greater synergy with your customers and your partners.
I only want to conclude by saying: India’s textile growth story is linked to the story of progress of the textile machinery manufacturing ecosystem. We cannot achieve our Vision 2030 or Vision 2047 unless the machinery value chain rises to this occasion with a competitive, indigenous and comprehensive Indian textile machinery sector. And I do trust it will be a true driver of resilience, sustainability and growth in the decades to come.
I, thank you once again for inviting me and wish you the best of luck.