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The Textile Association (India) - Ahmedabad Unit Organises Conference On

Textile Industry : Innovationsfor Sustainability & Growth

The Textile Association (India) -Ahmedabad Unit organised a one-dayconference on "Textile Industry : Inno-vations for Sustainability and Growth"at the University Ground inAhmedabad alongside the 'Engimach'exhibition dedicated to the engineer-ing machinery and machine tools.

The Conference was supported by theGovt. of Gujarat, IndustriesCommissionerate, Gandhinagar andalso by a host of local industrial asso-ciations of Ahmedabad.

Dr. Chandan Chatterjee (Director - CED& GM iNDEXTb) - a well-known anddynamic textile technocrat turned bu-reaucrat of Gujarat - who was one ofthe guest speakers - in his speech gavedetails of the various schemes of theGovt. of Gujarat for the growth anddevelopment of the textile and apparelindustry. The information provided byDr. Chatterjee is given below.

Government of Gujarat : Schemesfor Assistance to Textile & Apparelsector

Textile Industry has its unique positionas a self-reliant industry, from the pro-duction of raw materials to fabric andGarment and has a major contributionto the economy of Gujarat.

Gujarat is a leading textile state in thecountry. The state contributes over 33%of mill-made fabric and 25% of power-loom fabric of the country. Textile alsoaccounts for about 21% of total em-ployment in the industrial sector of thestate…

Dr. Chandan Chatterjee (Director - CED & GM iNDEXTb)

Considering the huge potential in thissector, both in terms of investment andemployment generation, Governmentof Gujarat intends to promote entiretextile value chain from farm to fibre tofabric to fashion and foreign trade. Thestate has identified certain sectors likeCotton spinning, Knitting and MachineCarpeting as the missing gaps in wholevalue chain, and also new areas likeTechnical and Industrial textile toachieve more and more value addition.

In view of the initiatives and strategiesenvisaged in the Industrial Policy, 2009Government is pleased to introducevarious schemes for Textile / Apparelsector as under:

Resolution

Looking to the opportunities for cotton

spinning, knitting, apparel and ma-chine carpeting both for domestic andinternational market, the IndustrialPolicy 2009 provides for extendingsupport to promote all these sectorswith an integrated approach for theover all development of textile indus-try in Gujarat. The Govt has thereforedecided to introduce the followingschemes with a strategic thrust on :

1. Technological upgradation

2. Quality Consciousness

3. Product Diversification

4. Increase in exports and innovativemarketing strategies

5. Maximising employment opportu-nities

6. Integrated Human Resource Devel-opment

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Operative period of the scheme

The scheme will come into operationfrom the date of issue of this GR andshall remain in force for five years.Only those enterprises which completeand make operational fully theirprojects during the operative periodshall be eligible for benefit mentionedunder the respective scheme, as ap-plicable.

Definitions

New Enterprise

New Enterprise means the enterprisewhich commences commercial pro-duction/ service during the operativeperiod of this scheme and has obtainedacknowledgement of f ilingEntrepreneur’s Memorandum (EM) withthe concerned District Industries Cen-ter (DIC) or Industrial Entrepreneur’sMemorandum (IEM) with Governmentof India.

Existing Enterprise

The Existing Enterprise means theenterprise which has filed EM with theconcerned DIC or IEM with GoI and isimplementing expansion/ diversifica-tion/ modernization in the project forcarrying out activity indicated in thisresolution.

Expansion or Diversification

Existing enterprise taking up expansionor diversification with investment morethan 50% of its existing gross fixedcapital investment as on date of initi-ating expansion/ diversification andcommencing production of said expan-sion/ diversification during the opera-tive period of the scheme shall betreated as Expansion or Diversification.

Gross Fixed Capital Investment

Gross fixed capital investment meansinvestment in fixed capital viz. Land,Building, Plant & Machinery before itcommences expansion/ diversifica-

TAI Conference On Textile Industry : Innovations for Sustainability & Growthtion/ modernization and/ or it obtainssanction of financial assistance fromBanks/Financial Institutions.

Eligible Fixed Capital Investment:

Eligible fixed capital investment meansthe capital investment made in thefixed assets viz. Land, Building, Plant& Machinery, Utilities, etc. excludingpre-operative expenses.

TUF Scheme

The TUF scheme means the Technol-ogy Upgradation Fund Scheme as no-tified by Government of India andamended from time to time regardingeligible machineries under the scheme.

Interest Subsidy Scheme

The scheme will be known as Finan-cial assistance by way of credit linkedInterest Subsidy in Spinning, Weaving,Knitting, Apparel and Machine Carpet-ing.

Eligible Activities

Spinning

Minimum size of each cotton/syntheticblended new spinning unit should beof 5,000 spindles. In case of expan-sion, it should be of additional 5,000spindles.

Weaving (Powerloom)

Investment in plant & machineries asspecified in the updated list of textilemachinery under T.U.F. Scheme ofGovernment of India.

Knitting, Apparel & Machine Carpet-ing

Minimum investment should be Rs. 5crores in plant and machineries.

Quantum of Assistance

(i) Interest subsidy will be availablefor establishing new enterprises

or for expansion/ diversificationand modernization of existingenterprises and only for the in-vestment in new and modernplant and machinery.

(ii) For the purpose of interest sub-sidy, the enterprise shall get termloan from Financial Institution/Bank recognized by ReserveBank of India.

(iii) The enterprise applying within oneyear of loan disbursement will beeligible.

(iv) Disbursement of the loan shouldbe within the operative period ofthe Scheme.

(v) The enterprise must start com-mercial operation within the op-erative period of the scheme.

(vi) Maximum interest subsidy at therate of 5% per annum, limited tomaximum of Rs. 30 lakhs (forSpinning maximum of Rs.40lakhs) per annum, will be avail-able to the enterprise. This inter-est subsidy will be in addition toany other incentives availablefrom other schemes of Govern-ment of India.

(vii) The interest subsidy will be avail-able only on interest levied by theFinancial Institution. Penal inter-est or other charges will not bereimbursed.

(viii) The interest subsidy will be forfive years OR for the period ofrepayment of loan whichever isearlier.

(ix) The interest subsidy will be givento the enterprise which pays regu-lar installments and interest to thefinancial institutions. If the enter-prise becomes defaulter, it willnot get interest subsidy for thedefault period and such default-ing period will be deducted from5 years period.

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Interest Subsidy in Technical Textiles

The scheme will be known as Creditlinked interest Subsidy in TechnicalTextiles.

Eligible Activities

Technical Textiles are defined as tex-tile materials and products used pri-marily for their technical performanceand functional properties rather thantheir aesthetic or decorative character-istics. Depending on the product char-acteristics, functional requirementsand end-use applications, the highlydiversified range of technical textileshave been grouped into 13 sectorsapplication-wise.

1. Agrotech (Agriculture, Horticultureand Forestry)

2. Buildtech (Building and Construc-tion)

3. Clothtech (Technical componentsof shoes and clothing)

4. Geotech (Geo-textiles and CivilEngineering)

5. Hometech (Components of furni-ture, household textiles and floorcoverings)

6. lndutech (Filtration, cleaning andother industrial usage)

7. Meditech (Hygiene and Medical)

8. Mobiltech (Automobiles, Shipping,Railways and Aerospace)

9. Oekotech (Environmental Protec-tion)

10. Packtech (Packaging)

11. Protech (Personal and PropertyProtection)

12. Sporttech (Sport and Leisure)

13. Defebcetech (Textile for defenseuse)

This Scheme will be applicable to newas well as to existing enterprise forexpansion/ upgradation in above 13sectors.

The machinery of Technical/ Industrial

TAI Conference On Textile Industry : Innovations for Sustainability & Growthtextile as listed and identified underTUF scheme or compatible with TUFscheme will be considered eligible.

Quantum of Assistance

The enterprise will be given interestsubsidy @6% in new plant and ma-chinery as interest linked capital sub-sidy limited to Rs. 125 lakhs during theoperative period of the scheme. Thiswill be in addition to any support pro-vided by State Government and Gov-ernment of India under any scheme.

Scheme of Assistance for Technol-ogy acquisition and upgradation

The scheme will be known as assis-tance to enterprises for Technologyacquisition and upgradation.

Eligible Activities

(i) The enterprise acquiring the tech-nology for the first time in India forspecialized application will be con-sidered eligible under the scheme.

(ii) The acquisition of technology canbe in any form, including purchaseof drawing and design and tech-nology development through en-gaging experts/ R&D institutionand/or technical consultancy firm.

Quantum of Assistance

(i) The enterprises acquiring the tech-nology will be provided financial as-sistance of upto 50% of the invest-ment for technology acquisition /collaboration, with maximum of Rs25 lakhs per process/product onceduring operative period of thescheme.

(ii) The enterprise availing the benefitfor the same purpose under anyother scheme of State Govern-ment will not be eligible to get ben-efit under this scheme.

Scheme for Assistance to ApparelTraining Institutions and Trainees

The scheme will be known as Assis-

tance to Training Institutions, TrainingCenters, Trainers and Trainees for Ap-parel related production.

Eligible Activities & Quantum of As-sistance

Setting up of Training Institution

(i) Under the scheme, any autono-mous institutions promoted by gov-ernment/ public sector undertak-ings or private sector with a strongbackground of textile and apparelindustries or skilled manpower de-velopment, which propose to setup apparel training facilities, will beprovided assistance upto 85%,with ceiling of maximum of Rs 3crore, of the project cost coveringfixed capital investment in build-ing, equipments and machinery (in-cluding installation cost), electrifi-cation, furnitures and other miscel-laneous investment required forsetting up training facilities, ex-cluding land cost.

(ii) The recurring expenditure for run-ning the training institution has tobe borne by the promoter institu-tion.

Upgradation of facilities in IndustrialTraining Institutes (ITIs)

ITIs offer different courses in apparelproduction as per the training schemeof All India Apprenticeship Training.These courses need to be upgradedas per the requirement of apparel in-dustry and the training content needsto be approved by State Level Com-mittee/ Anchor Institutions. ITIs, there-fore, need additional facilities in termsof new equipments and machineries.

Accordingly, ITIs will be provided needbased assistance for purchase ofequipments required for upgrading theirexisting facilities to provide training inapparel production. The assistance willbe as one time grant of total cost ofadditional equipments required to bepurchased for conducting trainingcourses in apparel production.

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TAI Conference On Textile Industry : Innovations for Sustainability & GrowthTraining Centers

(i) In Gujarat, there are large numbersof Training Centers in the form oftailoring schools, which providetraining in sewing and other tailor-ing related activities, set up by dif-ferent institutions, NGOs and pri-vate entrepreneurs and registeredby Directorate of Employment &Training (DET). There is a goodpotential to upgrade these facilitiesto provide training for different skillsof apparel production. This wouldgenerate large number of skilledmanpower in urban and semi-urbanareas of the state.

(ii) Such training centers, which comeforward to upgrade their facilitiesin order to make them viable ap-parel training centers will be pro-vided assistance at 50%, subjectto a limit of Rs. 20 lacs per center,of their investment towards pur-chase of equipment and machin-ery (including installation cost),electrification and necessary fur-niture. Establishment of new train-ing centers will also be eligible forfinancial assistance under thescheme. The institutions/ trainingcenters will be required to providetraining as per the norms of AEPCor State Level Committee/AnchorInstitutions.

Reimbursement of tuition fees toTrainees

(i) The training institutions charge tu-ition fees from trainees to meettheir recurring expenditure, as thisis the only source of income torun such institutions. The tuitionfees for undertaking training inapparel production are muchhigher as compared to feescharged by ITIs in different skills.

(ii) It is, therefore, necessary to pro-vide assistance to trainees so asto enable them to pay tuition fees.The assistance will be at 50% oftotal fees charge by institutions,subject to a limit of up to Rs

5,000/- per trainee per course inapparel production in institutionsapproved by the State Level Com-mittee. The selection of traineeswill be carried out by the commit-tee constituted by concerned Gen-eral Manager (GM), DIC. The ten-ure of the Training, Syllabus andTuition Fees will be prescribed byState Level Committee/ AnchorInstitutions.

(iii) However, this support will not beavailable to those trainees avail-ing any other similar support pro-vided by State Government.

Assistance for training to Trainers

(i) Financial assistance, as reim-bursement of training cost withmaximum limit of Rs.5000/- pertrainer per week, will be providedto apparel training institutions/ cen-ters approved by State Level Com-mittee for imparting training to thetrainers

(a) at 100% in case of trainers attending autonomous institu-tions promoted by Govern-ment/Public sector undertak-ings and

(b) at 50% in case of trainers at-tending other institutions

(ii) The training period should not bemore than four weeks.

(iii) The training will be conducted inthe institutions approved by theState Level Committee/ Anchor In-stitutions.

Training Support to Power loom Sec-tor

Stipend Scheme for Trainees ofPower loom

The scheme will be known as assis-tance by way of stipend to trainees ofPower loom training centers operatedby ATIRA at Ahmedabad & Dholka andby MANTRA at Pandesara, Katargamand Sachin at Surat.

Eligible activities

The fresh trainees of Power loom train-ing centers operated by ATIRA atAhmedabad & Dholka and by MAN-TRA at Pandesara & Sachin at Suratwill be considered eligible for stipend.

Quantum of Assistance:

Trainees will be given stipend ofRs.1500/- per month for the period ofthree months. The trainees for thebatches of weavers and jobbers underGR dated 15.10.2007 mentioned atpreamble (7) will also eligible for thestipend for Rs. 1500 per month.

Assistance for advanced training toPower l oom owner /jobber andworker

The scheme will be known as assis-tance for advanced training to powerloom owner/ jobber and worker to up-grade skills to work on Auto looms,High speed auto looms and Shuttlelesslooms and to improve their workingstyle, skill and behavior.

Quantum of Assistance

The scheme will be operated throughATIRA, MANTRA and similar Institu-tions. Under the scheme, the followingassistance will be provided:

(i) Allowances towards cost of trans-port & incidental expenses toweavers @ Rs.200/- per day forduration of two days and Jobbers@ Rs.300/- per day for duration ofsix days. No allowances will begiven to Power loom owner.

(ii) No fees will be charged by the In-stitution from Weaver, jobber orOwner for providing training.

The following conditions shall apply forproviding financial assistance:(i) Training period will be two days for

weaver, six days for jobber and twodays for power loom owner.

(ii) Fees to experts, practical training,facilities for training etc. will be de-

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TAI Conference On Textile Industry : Innovations for Sustainability & Growthcided in consultation with the of-fice of Industries Commissioneratefor the each training programme.Reimbursement of actual cost forsuch expenditure will be given toATIRA/ MANTRA or similar insti-tutions as approved by State LevelCommittee.

Support for Textile & Apparel Park

The scheme will be known as supportfor setting up of following type of Tex-tile & Apparel Park any where in Gujaraton PPP basis.

1. Apparel/Sewing Parks.

2. Weaving park for cotton/synthetictextiles

3. Exclusive Technical Textile Park

4. Exclusive Industrial Park for ma-chine made carpets

5. Industrial Park for Textile machin-eries & ancillaries

6. Ginning and Pressing park

Scheme for Support to Private De-veloper

If the private developer intends to de-velop a Textile and Apparel Park, it willbe entitled to Viability Gap Fundingscheme of Gujarat Infrastructure De-velopment Board, as specified below.

Eligibility

(i) The park must have provision forthe location of minimum 20 num-bers of manufacturing / service en-terprises.

(ii) The park should be implementedunder PPP basis i.e. developed, fi-nanced, constructed, maintainedand operated by a Private SectorCompany to be selected by theGovernment or Governmentagency or specified Governmentagency through a process of de-veloper selection as specified inthe Gujarat Infrastructure Develop-ment (GID) Act, 1999.

(iii) The state government may provide

land to the Project Special Pur-pose Company (SPC) on lease.The ownership of government landshall remain with Government/ itsagency.

Quantum of assistance

The park will be provided viability gapfunding of upto 20% of total projectcost by Gujarat Infrastructure Devel-opment Board (GIDB) as per the termsand conditions notified under G.R. No.IDB/112006/2536/I dated 25th July,2007, amended from time to time.

Support to Industries/ Industries As-sociation

If a group of industries or an industryassociation intends to develop a Tex-tile and Apparel Park, it will be entitledto financial assistance as specifiedbelow, subject to eligibility conditions.

Eligibility

(i) The park must have provision forthe location of minimum 20 num-bers of manufacturing / service en-terprises.

(ii) The park should be implementedunder PPP basis i.e. developed,financed, constructed, maintainedand operated a Special PurposeVehicle (SPV) consisting of gov-ernment/ its agencies and groupof industries/ industries associa-tion.

(iii) The state government may provideland to the SPV on lease. The own-ership of the government land shallremain with Government/ itsagency.

Quantum of assistance

The park will be provided financial as-sistance of up to 50%, with maximumlimit of Rs. 10 crore, of total projectcost for establishing common infra-structure facilities, excluding land cost.

General Conditions

(i) The enterprise must start commer-cial operation within the operative

period of the scheme.

(ii) The enterprise availing benefit un-der the scheme will have to remainin production/services at least forfive years from the date of com-mencement of commercial produc-tion/services.

(iii) All the benefiting enterprises shallfile information about annual pro-duction, sales, power consumptionand such other details as may beasked by DIC on 31st of everyMarch annually.

(iv) For expansion/ diversification theenterprise will be entitled for incen-tives only once during the opera-tive period of the scheme.

(v) The enterprises will be eligible forany additional incentives specifiedunder different schemes of Govern-ment of India.

State Level Committee constitutedfor sanction of assistance

1. Industries Commissioner Chairman

2. Addl. Secretary/ JS / Dy. Secretary– Finance dept. Member

3 Dy. Secretary (Textile) I & MD Mem-ber

4. Director, ATIRA Member

5. Director, MANTRA Member

6. Chairman, Surat Art Silk ClothManufacturers Association Mem-ber

7. President, Gujarat Chamber ofCommerce & Industry Member

8. General Manager (Projects & Tech-nology), iNDEXTb Member

9. Add /Jt./Dy. Commissioner of In-dustries Member Secretary

The proposal for getting the assistanceshould be submitted to the respectiveDistrict Industries Centre. DICs willscrutinize and forward the proposal toIndustries Commissioner, who will sub-mit before the State Level Committeefor its decision. Industries Commis-sioner in this regard will issue the de-tailed procedure separately.

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TAI Conference On Textile Industry : Innovations for Sustainability & GrowthShri B.B. Sharma, Technical Director,Welspun India Pvt. Ltd., Kutch(Gujarat), in his Keynote Addressemphasised on the need to havesustainability in every sphere of today'sindustrial activity. According to ShriSharma “sustainable development isdevelopment that meets the needs ofthe present without compromising theability of future generations to meettheir own needs.”

It is usually noted that this requires thereconciliation of environmental, socialand economic demands - the "three pil-lars" of sustainability. Shri Sharma re-called how the industrial units in thepast grossly undermined the issuesrelated to environment, minimumwages and corporate social responsi-bility. "These issues have now becomea must to follow in order to be func-tional in business today, especially inthe global trade", he added.

Shri Sharma highlighted how his com-pany was handling these issues andensuring best compliance to the inter-national standards.

Dr. P.R. Roy, Immediate Past Presidentof the Textile Association (India) and arenowned textile management consult-ant, in his inaugural address, also re-minded the industry of the adverseconsequences of the fast depletingnatural resources, especially cotton inIndia due to declining acrage undercotton farming. He advised the indus-try leaders to plan their future strate-gies based on these ground realitiesand go all out to create and adopt in-novations for sustainability and growth.

Dr. Roy, who is currently advising vari-ous textile mills to shape up their fu-ture directions extending technical andmanagerial support, said : "cotton isthe most important natural fibre usedin the textile industries worldwide,amounting to 40% of the textile pro-duction. The consumption of a cottonproduct is connected to a chain of im-pacts on the water resources in thecountries where cotton is grown and

Shri B.B. Sharma, Technical Director, Welspun India Pvt. Ltd.

Welspun City , a 2500 acre township set up in the heart of Anjar is thebackbone of Welspun. It was established in 2004 with an initial investment ofRs. 13,500 million. The one-of-its-kind Welspun Textile Mill produces TerryTowels and Bed linen of the finest and the best quality in the World. Theseproducts are mostly exported to the top retailers of the Globe which includesmost of the Fortune 100 Companies like Wal Mart, Target and J.C. Pennyamongst others.

Welspun City is additionally a prime example of continuous efforts of pro-tecting the environment with a strong emphasis on a-forestation. The town-ship is in the process of turning itself in the creation of the largest green beltin the area, with a veritable forest of about 500,000 trees which includes theJatropha tree, the drought resistant perennial whose seeds is used to pro-duce bio-diesel.

In its sincere efforts to improve the lives of children “Welspun Vidya Mandir”,a school up to class 10, affiliated under the Central board of SecondaryEducation, India (CBSE) and “Welspun Anganvadi”, a pre-primary school forchildren has been set up for children of Welspun employees and local fami-lies.

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TAI Conference On Textile Industry : Innovations for Sustainability & Growthprocessed –mainly dry regions. Theseimpacts of cotton production on theenvironment are easily visible and havedifferent faces. On the one hand thereare the effects of water depletion. Onthe other, the effects on water quality".

The consumption of a cotton productis connected to a chain of impacts onthe water resources in the countrieswhere cotton is grown and processed.It is important to assess the 'water foot-print' of worldwide cotton consumption,identifying both the location and thecharacter of the impacts. There arethree types of impact: evaporation ofinfiltrated rainwater for cotton growth(green water use), withdrawal ofground- or surface water for irrigationor processing (blue water use) andwater pollution during growth or pro-cessing. The latter impact is quantifiedin terms of the dilution volume neces-sary to assimilate the pollution.

For the period 1997-2001 the studyshows that the worldwide consumptionof cotton products requires 256 Gm3of water per year, out of which about42% is blue water, 39% green waterand 19% dilution water. Impacts aretypically cross-border. About 84% of thewater footprint of cotton consumptionin the EU25 region is located outsideEurope, with major impacts particularlyin India and Uzbekistan. Given the gen-eral lack of proper water pricing mecha-nisms or other ways of transmittingproduction-information, cotton consum-ers have little incentive to take respon-sibility for the impacts on remote wa-ter systems.

India is playing an ever-important rolein the world’s cotton market. Set tobypass the United States and becomethe world’s second largest producer ofcotton in 2007, India has seen its cot-ton sector undergo critical changes inrecent years.

Ever since the government of Indiaauthorized the commercialization of Btcotton in 2002, cotton production hassoared. From 2002 to 2006, production

Dr. P.R. Roy, Immediate Past President of the Textile Association (India)and a renowned textile management consultant

Dr. Ramkumar Seshadri, Associate Professor of Nonwoven Materials atThe Institute of Environmental and Human Health at Texas Tech University,USA being felicitated by the Textile Association (India)-Ahmedabad Uniton receiving the prestigious “Scientist of the Year” award for his invention“FIBERTECT” decontamination wipe by the Lubbock chapter of Achieve-ment Rewards for College Scientists Foundation (ARCS). ARCS is a na-tional body with a mission to Advance Science in America.

doubled from 11 million bales to 23million bales. India is expected to over-take the U.S. as the world’s secondlargest cotton producer in 2007. Therecent increase in Indian cotton pro-duction has outpaced the domestic

needs for cotton, making India the thirdlargest exporter of cotton – most ofwhich goes to China.

Only five years ago, India’s cotton ex-ports were insignificant.

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TAI Conference On Textile Industry : Innovations for Sustainability & Growth

Dr. Ramkumar Seshadri making his presentation on"Technical Textiles : Opportunities Unlimited.

Dr. Seshadri Ramkumar of Texas Tech University, whosupervises the Nonwovens and Advanced Materials Labo-ratory at the Institute of Environmental and Human Healthat Texas Tech, has also been playing a vital role for thepromotion, growth and international linkages in technicaltextiles in India. He was in Ahmedabad to deliver his lec-ture on "Technical Textiles : Opportunities Unlimited" andalso to hold top level meetings with the govt. officials inthe industries department as the State wants to take alead in the production and promotion of technical textilesby opening centres of excellence in this fast emergingand promising field.

Non-woven technology involves no weaving or spinning.The raw material on one end of the machine and the fabriccomes out of the other. Non-woven fabric is made by put-ting together small fibers in a sheet or a web and thenbinding them together, either mechanically with an adhe-sive or using heat.

Non-weaving machines are 2,000 times faster than weav-ing machines and these fibers are used for disposableproducts like filters, and medical garments among others.

Non-woven technology has environmental merits, too. "Weexperimented with bio-degradable produce as well as coir,cotton and jute and this technology is flexible to naturalfibers too," he said.

Ramkumar aims to promote the non-woven textile indus-try in India. Since 2004 he has been making efforts togrow the non-woven and technical textile industry base inIndia.

He said the textiles industry in India is second only toagriculture in economic importance, given that it employs35 million people. India imports 60 percent of the non-woven material it needs from countries like Taiwan, Ko-rea, China and the US.

But he noted that India has taken aggressive steps toproduce more of it. It has created a national mission for itand has allocated $170 million to the industry. Already,Ramkumar said, India has initiated steps to establish fourcenters of excellence: medical textiles, geotextiles,agrotextiles and protective textiles. This offers a businessopportunity for US and European textile industries to ex-pand into -- and seek new markets.

"The value added textiles sector is a highly profitable one.But only a few companies are in the field in India. What weneed is collaboration with foreign countries,' he said.

In a recent study, Ramkumar and another researcher,Appachi Arunachalam, predicted a yearly growth of 13.3percent for India's non-woven and technical textile indus-

try, which is more than twice the annual 5 to 6 percent ex-pected growth patterns in the United States and Europe.

The report titled India Rising: Opportunities in Nonwovensand Technical Textiles, show the growth and potential of India'stechnical textile industry and the consumption of nonwoventechnical textiles from 2007-2050. That report was publishedin Nonwovens Industry and Textile World Asia.

"In this era of globalisation, such a study will be useful forthe US textile industries to seek joint ventures and collabo-ration with the emerging market," Ramkumar said. "By 2035,the growth rate of the nonwoven and technical textile indus-try will be exponential. However, with the new governmentinitiatives in India, the growth rate will be even faster."

Ramkumar was honored last year with the Top Twenty Under40 Award for his achievements in inventing a non-wovenmilitary wipe by the Young Professionals of Greater Lub-bock.

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TAI Conference On Textile Industry : Innovations for Sustainability & GrowthThe non-woven military wipe can beused to protect and clean soldiers andmilitary aircraft that have been con-taminated with lethal chemicals. Thewipe technology, developed at TexasTech, has been proved to be one ofthe best dry wipe technologies avail-able.

He also serves as the co-chairman ofthe Association of the Nonwoven Fab-rics Industry's India committee. Thetextiles sector in India will be moreimportant in the future and innovationsin this field are vital, he said. Currentlythe sector involves $55 billion; by 2020,it will grow up to $115 billion.

"My immediate mission is to promotethe growth of the technical textile in-dustry in India which will be worth 15billion dollars by 2012. I plan to do thisby bringing many international playersto India and establish collaborationswith institutes and organisations," hesaid.

Dr. N.N. Mahapatra, Vice President(Tech. Marketing), Hind PrakashLonsen Ind. Ltd., Ahmedabad, in hispresentation on "Textile Dyes : Scopeand Challenges" stressed the need forusing cleaner production technologiesand newer dyes and chemical productsthat lead to energy saving and help incontrolling air and water pollution. Healso emphasised on the need toclosely monitor small little things inhouse keeping and floor plant that canconsiderably help in achievingsustainability and improved overallworking of the plant.

Introducing appropriate residues to themolecule of a reactive dye can increaseits UV-protection properties. The col-oration of cellulose fabrics with the useof specially tailored dyes could elimi-nate the necessity of using additionalUV-absorber auxiliaries, and thereforedecrease the number of chemicalsused in the dyehouse. This fact shouldbe considered when designing new re-active dyes;

Technological developments have

Ms. Panna Trivedi, Sr. Manager - Design and Development, Reliance In-dustries Ltd., Ahmedabad made her presentation on "CAD in Textile : ATool for Creativity and Growth" .

Lonsen PlantLonsen Plant

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TAI Conference On Textile Industry : Innovations for Sustainability & Growthbroadened the scope of applicationsof the textile fibres. High performanceTextiles are gaining importance day byday due to their versatile applicationsin endless areas. The advent of areaslike Geo – Textiles, Industry, and Build-ing – construction, Medical field,

Automotives, Agriculture, Sports,Clothing, and Packaging have widenedthe reign of textile fibres.

Shri Ashish Saraf, MD, Inter Continen-tal Industries, Mumbai made a detailedand demonstrative presentation on"Textile Auxiliaries : Technological De-velopments and Opportunities".

Shri Saraf gave details of the new novelproducts of his company that have beenintroduced in the Indian market for thefirst time in order to address the globalissues of environment andsustainability. According to Shri Saraf,the first component emphasizes thequality of the products which in turn,emphasizes the importance of pro-cessing control, material and energysaving, quality assurance and totalquality management, and improvingproduction environment to comply withISO and ECO requirements.

The second component is concernedwith increased productivity. In additionto the output of the first component,the second component will make useof the R and D activities, as well assupportive services and extensionservices to achieve products diversifi-cation as per the market demand, in-novative products and cost reductionof current production.

Some of the other areas of researchare : The use of biological methods inthe wet processing of textile, develop-ment of dyeing of cotton and polyes-ter/cotton blends, synthesis of newpolymeric materials for use as thick-eners in pigment printing and in reac-tive printing to substitute kerosene/water emulsion and sodium alginaterespectively. Then there is the finalchemical finishing of textiles to impart

Shri Ashish Saraf, MD, Inter Continental Industries, Mumbai

Shri Priyesh G. Shah, MD, Sagar Group, Ahmedabad

certain desirable properties and alsothe use of electro-catalytic degrada-tion of dissolved dyes in textile wastewater treatment.

Shri Saraf, with his technical team,demonstrated the effectiveness of hiscompany's premium product called'Intramine - HL' which showed excel-lent water absorbency. This product ishighly recommended for betterdesizing, perfect scouring, excellentwhiteness, level and bright dyeing, in-

stant absorbency, soft and fluffy feeland as an accelerator to the conven-tional enzyme.

The other products highlighted by ShriSaraf included : Vitamin E, Silkytouch,Odoguard, Urethane Finish, Ozoneinhibitor, Gas Fading Inhibitor,Mosquitto Repellent, Durable PressFinish and Sulphur Tender Guardamong others. The company offersspeciality chemicals for paper andleather industries also.

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TAI Conference On Textile Industry : Innovations for Sustainability & GrowthShri Priyesh G. Shah, MD, SagarGroup, Ahmedabad gave his presen-tation on "Weaving Machinery : Cur-rent Trends and Innovations."

With an insight for innovation,multitalented work force and as a youngvisionary working for more than 50world reputed Principals in the textilemachinery field from about 40 coun-tries, Shri Priyesh Shah was one ofthe ablest speakers to throw light onthe latest innovations taking placearound the globe and also beingadopted by different key players.

Shri Shah discussed in detail the highspeed air jet and water jet weavinglooms and a host of other machineriessuch as roving, ring spinning frame andcompact spinning system, warping &sizing machines etc. Shri Shahstressed the need for modernisation ofthe weaving industry in view of theavailability of very high speed air/wa-ter jet looms that lead to considerablecost saving and hence increase com-petitiveness of the enterprise. He de-scribed latest high speed air jet loomsoffered by Toyota Industries Corpora-tion - Japan which offer lot of energysaving and lowest production cost ofeight paise per pick.

As one of the best selling Air Jet Loom,its key features are high speed, lessvibration and reduced air consumption,greater flexibility & state -of- the-arttechnology.

It has also set a world standard ofWater Jet weaving in the 21st century.Improved quality, easy handing, loweroperating cost and broader weavingrange are some of its key features.

Similarly, Toyota RX240 NEW-ESTCompact Spinning System, equippedwith their proven unique compact spin-ning system offers exceptionally highquality yarns that exceeds the capa-bilities of conventional ring spinningsystems. Toyota New FL200 ideal Rov-ing Frame, one that enables anyone tospin high-quality roving at high speeds.

Shri Soham Mehta, MD, AdventEnvirocare Technology Pvt. Ltd., Ahmedabadspoke on "Textile Effluent : Treatment and Recycling"

ADVENT is one of the very few companies in the field of environmental engineer-ing, with process know-how and field experience in complete spectrum of relatedtechnologies using physical-chemical treatment, advanced biological treatment,chemical oxidation, filtration, membrane separation, thermal evaporation, vacuumevaporation and incineration. ADVENT develops innovative treatment approachesusing both conventional and emerging technologies based on applied researchand basic engineering know-how.

ADVENT undertakes Pollution Control and Water Treatment Projects with scopeof work convenient to the customers, be it single-point turn-key responsibility tojust the consulting services and supplies.

Turnkey Project Contracts(EPCC) : ADVENT can provide complete servicesfrom concept to commissioning including engineering, procurement, construc-tion and operation of treatment systems. This can be provided for new and up-graded systems or components also. ADVENT has associates to jointly executelarge projects like CETP’s on turn-key basis.

Engineering & Package Supplies : ADVENT also undertakes design and engi-neering of treatment system and supplies, erects and commissions completemechanical equipment is a package. Piping and Electrical works can also beincluded, if desired.

Planning and Conceptual Engineering : This involves collection of baseline in-formation, data evaluation, testing, treatability studies, technology screening, de-velopment of treatment alternatives and process optimization. This is generallyfollowed by development of Basic Engineering Package.

Contract Operations : ADVENT also undertakes Commissioning, Operations,Maintenance & Troubleshooting Contracts of self-executed projects, includingplant upgrades. The scope may cover complete O & M to just providing technicalsupport.

Environmental Audits & Permitting : The Environmental Audit covers water, airand solid discharges from the industry, their characterization, extent of treatmentand ultimate fate. This helps in developing Environmental Management Systemand initiates measures like Source Control and Cleaner Technology. Permittinginvolves getting necessary clearances from the respective authorities

NCM-JANUARY 201049

TAI Conference On Textile Industry : Innovations for Sustainability & GrowthNewly developed four motor drive, thelatest in servo technology, combinedwith the synergy of a high-performancetension controller the FL-200 ensuresone rank above all others in every as-pect of performance, productivity, op-erability & roving quality.

Shri Jignesh Shroff, Director, MayurReeds & Healds Pvt. Ltd., Ahmedabadtalked on "Role of Textile MachineryAccessories Manufacturing : A Clus-ter Approach". He gave details abouthis company's activities.

Mayur Reeds And Healds Pvt. Ltd.was established in 1994 with "Mayur"Brand Weaving Accessories. Mayur'sassociate manufacturing units are AtulEnterprise, Tina Reeds Mfg. Co., whohave been manufacturing and sellingthe "MAYUR" Brand Weaving Acces-sories from last 25 years in India andabroad.

Mayur manufactures all metal reeds,metallic heald frames, riderless flathealds, flat steel healds, twin wirehealds (twisted & inserted type ), droppins, warpers & weavers beams andcloth rolls weaving preparatory itemsfor all types of Weaving machines.

Mayur has a nationwide network ofAgents and Dealers in India and alsooverseas.

"Mayur" Brand Weaving Accessoriesare made as per the International Stan-dards. Mayur has a well equipped qual-ity control department with fully quali-fied, dedicated engineers with longexperience. The quality is controlledright from raw materials to finishedproduct at each stage of manufacture.

Mayur offers quality products at rea-sonable rates with prompt delivery andservices. In a short span of 25 years,the overwhelming customer responsehas transformed Mayur into one of theleading manufacturers of textile weav-ing accessories in India. Mayur hascustomers spread across South EastAsia, Middle East Asia, Europe & Af-rica.

Shri Jignesh Shroff, Director, Mayur Reeds & Healds Pvt. Ltd., Ahmedabad

Shri A.R. Garde, Former Director, ATIRA, speaking on " Indian SpinningIndustry : An Overview"

Indian Spinning Industry has gone from strength to strength since a very long timenow as it was the hub of cotton manufacturing. Cotton is not only consumed to thehighest extent in India but it has also become one of the most profitable textiles inthe export industry. Spinning in India can be classified into 2 categories: mediumand long staple. But there was a shortfall in the ‘extra-long’ category that contin-ued for many years. The development of new varieties of seeds and adopting theadvanced procedure of cultivation will add to the profit in the cotton textile sectorof the spinning industry. The yarn spinning industry covers almost 25 percent ofthe total industrial production of one of the world's 10 largest economies.

Shri Garde is actively working to provide an effective on line solution to check thevarious quality parameters that influence the spinning process and the yarn qual-ity. An important announcement to this effect is expected from him very soon.

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TAI Conference On Textile Industry : Innovations for Sustainability & Growth

The Textile Association (India) - Ahmedabad Unit office bearers alongwith theguests releasing the Souvenir on the occasion of the one-day conference on"Textile Industry : Innovations for Sustainability and Growth" at the UniversityGround in Ahmedabad alongside the 'Engimach' exhibition.

Navneet Krishnan

Shri Navneet Krishnan, Manager(Business Development), ATE Enter-prise Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, spoke on"Dyeing, Printing & Finishing Machin-eries - Challenges Ahead"

Textile is one of the basic needs formankind. For a primitive human being,textile was needed to cover himself,protect him against extreme weatherand so on. With progress in time andwith the advent of renaissance, hu-mans started exploiting resources andstarted setting-up textile industries.Today we find the technologies to beobsolete although at that time it wasstill a novel technology. Mankind haswitnessed the growth in textile indus-try from time immemorial and till to-day exists as one the basic needs forhumans. But today, the industry is notonly producing textiles to cover but itis used as fashion statements withmany leading brands being preferredby us and variegated textile productsto choose from. This has put tremen-dous pressure on the textile supplychain and processing in particular.

With the shift in textile processing in-dustries from West to Asian continents,India and China are considered to bepotential players in processing. Indiantextile processing industry does haveplenty of challenges to be addressedas it moves ahead in its quest toachieve the pinnacle. Undoubtedly, theprocessing sector has started adopt-ing technologies that try to counter thechallenges but the pace with which thisis happening is definitely a matter ofconcern.

The recent decade has witnessed un-desirable side effects of air, water andland pollutions and to certain extentalso contributing to global warming.Unfortunately, we cannot exclude tex-tile processing industry from the listand processing industry has its sharein the mentioned effects of industrial-ization. As a result, many countriesacross the globe have developed strin-gent standards which need to beadopted by the Indian textile industryin order to sustain and move further.

Shr i Navn eetKrishnan - with aB.Tec h. d egreefrom UDCT andover 8 years o fexperience in thein du s t ry - l ec -tures at ICT (for-merly UDCT) as avisting faculty tof i nal year s tu -dents on tex tileproc es s ho us emanagement. Hewas also invitedto d el iv er l ec -tures at DKTE onrecent develop-ments in texti leprocessing.

His presentationdealt with specificchallenges facedby the textile pro-cessing machin-ery manufactur-i ng s ec to r an dtext ile process-ing industry. Thelacunas in its ap-p l ic at io n tech -no lo g ies w erealso focused.

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TAI Conference On Textile Industry : Innovations for Sustainability & Growth

Shri Shaishav Shah, MD, Grafin India Inc. - a young and bright chemi-cal engineer from DDIT - speaking at the Conference.

Shri Shaishav Shah, MD, Grafin India Inc. obtained B.E. degree in ChemicalEngineering, from DDIT, Nadiad in 1994. Despite having inherited a wellestablished family business of chemicals since 1976, he preferred workingin different industries for 2-3 years and gained valuable experience. In 1997,he joined the family organisation. He then carried out what can be termed asa visionary diversification in the field of textile chemicals with the objectiveto enhance competitiveness of Indian textile industry in global market withhigh quality and concentrated perfomance chemicals.

Grafin started imports of speciality concentrates for textile processing in-dustry from various countries including Germany, Taiwan, China, Turkey,Indonesia, etc. which later led to the establishment of 'Garfin' brand (GarfinTechnologies Pvt. Ltd.).

In 2006, Garfin Technologies Pvt. Limited, in collabration with Rudolf ChemieGmbH & Co KG of Germany, set up state-of-the-art production facility anda modern laboratory for speciality textile chemicals at Padra, Vadodara inGujarat. This provided Grafin an invaluable technological expertise and tech-nical experience from it's German partner.

The company revived it's Garfin brand and established Garfin India Inc. in2008. The business line was the same but the company provided morethrust towards global competence and competitiveness. The core businessteam was strenghthened with more professionals and technical experts instaff as well as in advisory board. The company also established an effec-tive distribution network across the country.

Today, Grafin secializes in enzymes and silicones. It offers an outperform-ing range of various functional chemicals for textile, leather, paper andgaIvanizing industries, such as flame resistant, silicate replacements, metalcleanser, silicone specialties, etc.

Shri Shaishav Shah has an active involvement in technical product design,production streamlining and overall quality controls.

Shri Shaishav Shah, MD, Grafin IndiaInc. - a young chemical engineer fromDDIT - made an effective presentationon "Speciality Chemicals : Functional-ity & Sustainability".

Textile industry today is traversingthrough a transition phase "From Con-ventional to Hygeinic & EcofriendlyTextiles". The journey is drifted mainlyby two factors:

1. Fashion2. Eco Trend

Textile innovation not confined to su-perficial effects only but also actuallytaking place at every stage of textileproduction starting from raw cotton pro-duce, fibre, fabric to garment.

Cotton :

In recent years organic cotton has beenreplacing the conventional cotton pro-duce for its skin hygiene properties.The fabric made up of organic cottonis processed with very selectivechemicals only in order to retain thehygiene.

Fibres :

Innovations in research and develop-ment have developed many innovativefibres in recent few years. Some ex-amples of these are :

- Anti-Bacterial Fibres

- Flame Retardant/Heat ProtectionFibres

- Moisture Management& SkinHygeine

- Bullet Proof Jackets And IndustrialWear

- Skin Comforts & Elegance

Some of the trendy products fromGarfin for value additions of textiles are: Freshness (Garzin &Gispel); Anti-Mi-crobial, Anti-Fungal (Garcid); MosquitoRepellent(Gispel); UV Absorber(Gispel); Water-Oil-Soil Repellent CF6(Garepel); Flame Retardant (Garflam)Fragrance (Gispel).

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Shri P.H. Shah of ATIRA made a presentation on "Ginning : Ways andMeans to Reduce Cotton Processing Cost"

TAI Conference On Textile Industry : Innovations for Sustainability & Growth

The Full Team of The Textile Association (India) - Ahmedabad Unit that made the Confer-ence On "Textile Industry : Innovations for Sustainability and Growth" a Great Success

ATIRA Ginning Service Center (spon-sored by Govt. of Gujarat) has been setup with the following objectives : to setfacilities for testing of kapas and Cottonlint and critical part of the machinery usedin the ginning and pressing factories ofGujarat; to prepare training manually/material including do’s and donts for theginning industry; to prepare audio visualaids like slides, photographic, and videocossets for workers, operators and su-pervisory staff and to improve work prac-tices/ culture by educating the personsworking in ginning. The Center is engagedin educating ginning people i.e. owners,managers, fitters/ helpers etc. and en-couraging the industry to capture the ex-port market. It also provides full assistancein selection/certification of cotton balesfor Indian as well as abroad textile mills.

The Center's services are aimed at :

1. Improving quality of cotton in terms offibre rupture, neps and contaminationincluding trash content by providinguidance to ginning units being mod-ernized under Technology Mission onCotton (TMC) Scheme, Govt. of India.

Sitting (L-R) : A.D. Bhagat, K.J. Patel, B.A. Shah, R.R. Agrawal, B.V. Shah, H.J. Patel, T. L. Patel, V.A. Trivedi,A.D. Patel, M.S. Patel and I.M. Bhandari

Standing (L-R) : K.D. Khatri, M.G. Shah, H.C. Shah, P.V. Patel, R.J. Shah and J.N. Shukla

Absent : H.A. Patel, R.M. Soni, H.S. Patel, J.H. Patel, A.I. Thakkar and A. K. Patel

2. Providing cotton testing on modernequipment in NABL accredited labs.

3. Establishing Educational Diplomacourse on ‘Ginning Technology’.

4. Improving ginning productivity, cottonrealization and saving in power con-sumption.

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