The Government has approved the proposal for creation of National Technical Textiles Mission for a period of 4 years (2020-21 to 2023-24) with an outlay of Rs.1480 crores. The distribution of funds is (i) For Research Innovation & Development – Rs. 1000 crores, (ii) For Promotion and Market Development- Rs.50 crore, (iii) For Education, Training and Skilling- Rs. 400 crore, and (iv) For Export Promotion – Rs.10 crores and balance Rs.20 crores for administrative expenses.
The focus of the Mission is for developing on usage of technical textiles in various flagship missions, programmes of the country including strategic sectors. The use of technical textiles in agriculture, aquaculture, dairy, poultry, etc. Jal Jivan Mission; Swachch Bharat Mission; Ayushman Bharat will bring an overall improvement in cost economy, water and soil conservation, better agricultural productivity and higher income to farmers per acre of land holding in addition to promotion of manufacturing and exports activities in India. The use of geo-textiles in highways, railways and ports will result in robust infrastructure, reduced maintenance cost and higher life cycle of the infrastructure assets.
Promotion of innovation amongst young engineering /technology/ science standards and graduates is proposed to be taken up by the Mission; alongwith creation of innovation and incubation centres and promotion of ‘start-up’ and Ventures’. The research output will be reposited with a ‘Trust’ with the Government for easy and assessable proliferation of the knowledge thus gained through research innovation and development activities.
A sub-component of the research will focus on development of bio degradable technical textiles materials, particularly for agro-textiles, geo-textiles and medical textiles. It will also develop suitable equipment for environmentally sustainable disposal of used technical textiles, with emphasis on safe disposal of medical and hygiene wastes.
There is another important sub-component in the research activity aiming at development of indigenous machineries and process equipment for technical textiles, in order to promote ‘Make In India’ and enable competitiveness of the industry by way of reduced capital costs.
Six courses on for skill development in Technical Textiles sector have been on-boarded on National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) for providing training in the sector.
The mission shall work for holistic development of entire technical textile sector on pan-India basis.
This information was given in a written reply by the Union Minister of Textiles Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani in Lok Sabha today.