Ministry of Textiles clears 15 R&D projects
Author: BI Bureau
New Delhi: The Ministry of Textiles cleared 15 R&D projects worth around Rs 32.25 crore across key strategic areas such as specialty fibre, protective textiles, high-performance textiles, geotextiles, medical textiles, sustainable textiles, and textiles for building materials during the 5th Mission Steering Group (MSG) meeting held under the chairmanship of Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Textiles, Commerce and Industry and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution here on Friday.
While addressing the meeting, Goyal said that leading textile manufacturers and institutes should come together to indigenously develop strategic and high-value technical textile products, with the support of the NTTM. Robust outreach exercise is required to attract R&D proposals in machinery and equipment across major textile machinery manufacturing hubs in India, he said.
Inter-Ministerial collaboration is required to document and utilize existing and updated technologies for wider usage in the nation building process, especially in the areas of sustainable technical textiles. Existing beneficiaries of NTTM such as Premier Institutes and Research bodies need to connect with other institutes for wider awareness, benefits and optimal utilization of NTTM Scheme across India, he added.
Encouraging young engineering minds to pursue technical textiles in India is the need of the hour. A broad guideline under Start-up scheme was discussed and may be finalized on priority targeting aspiring innovators, entrepreneurs and young scientists, he said.
Technical Textile Machinery and Equipment development has been a major challenge which needs collaborative interventions from Government, Industry and Academia, including commercialization of the developed machines. The General Guidelines for indigenous development of machines and equipment in the application areas of technical textiles under NTTM is a strong-foot forward and needs to be utilized the industry at its fullest, he further emphasized.
Goyal also reviewed the progress of previously sanctioned R&D projects under the NTTM during the meeting. In addition, the way forward and action plan for propelling India’s technical textiles sector was discussed and recommended including wider field-level outreach programmes for research in fundamental, applied, and machine development across TRAs, and identification of specialized skill requirements in the sector. /BI/
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The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores.
As the economy comes to a standstill amid the coronavirus-led lockdown, India’s agriculture sector has taken the baton of economic growth in its hands. The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores, according to the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. The government said that self-reliant agriculture is critical for the goal of an Atmanirbhar Bharat and for this, agricultural export is extremely important as besides earning foreign exchange for the country, the exports help farmers, producers, and exporters to take advantage of the wider international market and increase their income.
The surge in exports has also resulted in increased production in the farm sector by increasing coverage area and productivity. The share of India’s agricultural exports and imports in the world agriculture trade in 2017 was 2.27 percent and 1.90 percent, respectively. Even during the difficult time of pandemic lockdown, India took care not to disturb the world food supply chain and continued to export, the government said.
Ministry of Agriculture has prepared a comprehensive action plan for the promotion of Agri trade; the twofold approach focuses on boosting Agri Export with emphasis on value addition and action plan for Import Substitution. Recently, the Agriculture sector has witnessed a series of reforms, giving more choices to the farmers to sell their produce at competitive rates.
To mention a few, the Export strategy focuses on the export promotion of fast-evolving niche markets of Wellness food/ Health-conscious food/nutraceuticals, Development of “Brand India” in campaign mode to help penetration into new foreign markets and of new products which automatically translates into higher value realization, Gulf countries have been identified as focus destination to increase the market share which is a strong market for India though presently India caters to only 10-12% share of their total imports. A product-market matrix has been made containing a list of products of strength that could be expanded in new geographies and a list of known markets which can be introduced with newer products.
At the behest of the Department of Agricultural Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture, product-specific Export Promotion Forums have been created to lead Agri exports to new heights. Each Export Promotion Forum shall be having exporters of the related commodity as its members along with official members representing concerned Ministries/Departments of the Central and State Governments. Chairman APEDA shall be the chairman of each of these forums. The forums will meet at least once every two months, to discuss recommendations on issues pertaining to the export.
The recommendations of the forum will be placed in the product committee / Authority of APEDA. The Forum will keep in close contact with the concerned organization of the Ministry of Agriculture such as MIDH, Extension, NPPO, etc., DGFT, Ministry of Civil Aviation, MoFPI, etc. to further the interest of agricultural export.
