NATIONAL TECHNICAL TEXTILES MISSION - ECONOMY

News: Projects cleared under National Technical Textiles Mission 

What's in the news?

       The number of strategic research projects cleared by the Union Government under the National Technical Textiles Mission has been raised to 20.

       The projects worth around 374 crore, are in the fields of speciality fibre, Agro-textiles, smart textiles etc.

       Despite the usage of speciality fibres in India, indigenisation of the technology is still a major challenge, according to Minister Piyush Goyal.

Technical textiles:

       Technical textiles are textiles materials and products manufactured primarily for technical performance and functional properties rather than aesthetic characteristics.

       Technical Textiles products are divided into 12 broad categories (Agrotech, Buildtech, Clothtech, Geotech, Hometech, Indutech, Mobiltech, Meditech, Protech, Sportstech, Oekotech, Packtech) depending upon their application areas.

Technical textiles in India:

       India shares nearly 6% of the world market size of 250 Billion USD.

       However, the annual average growth of the segment is 12%, as compared to 4% world average growth.

       The penetration level of technical textiles is low in India at 5-10%, against 30-70% in advanced countries.

National Technical Textiles Mission:

       Aim: By increasing the local market's size from USD 40 billion to USD 50 billion by 2024, the mission's goal is to establish India as a global leader in technical textiles.

       Implementation Period:  FY 2020-21 to 2023-24.

Components of the mission:

The mission has four components as follows.

1. Research, Innovation and Development:

       Focus on research, innovation and indigenous development of speciality fibres from Carbon, Nylon-66, Glass, Aramid and other high technology polymers; increase the application of geotextiles, agro-textiles, medical textiles, protective textiles and other segments of technical textiles in various application areas.

2. Promotion and Market Development:

       Promote awareness amongst users, bring in large scale investments and encourage high-end technical textiles products.

       By 2024, the Mission intends to have an average annual growth of 15% to 20%.

3. Export Promotion:

       Enhance India’s exports of technical textiles by 2024 through focused attention on the highest traded products.

       It concentrates on export promotion in order to increase technical textile exports from the nation from Rs 14,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore by 2021–2022, and to guarantee an annual average growth rate of 10% until the Mission is completed.

       There will be an export promotion council for technological textiles.

4. Education, Training, Skill Development:

       Create robust human resources in the country both through specialised higher education and skill development of technical manpower of the country.

       The Mission will support technical education pertaining to technical textiles and their application fields at higher engineering and technology levels. 

Implementation Mechanism:

The mission will be implemented through a 3-tier institutional mechanism constituting as follows.

1. Mission Steering Group:

       It is chaired by the Union Minister of Textiles.

       It is fully empowered to approve all financial norms in respect of all Schemes, Components and programmes of the NTTM. In addition, all scientific/technological research projects under the NTTM shall require the approval of this Group.

2. Empowered Programme Committee:

       It is chaired by the Secretary, Ministry of Textiles. It will approve all projects within the financial limit of each programme as approved by the Mission Steering Group, except Research Projects.

       The EPC will also monitor the implementations of various components of the Mission and guide the Mission Directorate on implementation matters.

3. Committee on Technical Textiles on Research, Development & Innovation:

       It is chaired by Member(S&T), Niti Aayog.

       It will identify and recommend all research projects related to strategic sectors such as defence, paramilitary, security, space, and atomic energy to the Mission Steering Group for approval.