“The Ministry of Textiles is committed to working closely with all the stakeholders and bring the government support to technical textiles industry through such programs,” said Shri. A B Joshi, Textile Commissioner, Ministry of Textiles, Govt of India in his inaugural address at the Buyer Seller Meet on Technical Textiles jointly organized by the Ministry of Textiles and Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) at Surat on February 15 &16, 2012.

He informed about the different schemes available for SMEs and entrepreneurs. He said that 12th five-year plan working committee now estimated that the technical textile market can grow 20% y-o-y in coming years. He briefed participants on the Technology Mission on Technical Textiles and urged the industry in the region, especially the textile business community and entrepreneurs, to make use of the opportunities in the technical textile sector. In the 12th Five-Year Plan, he said, the Government has allocated funds for the development of centres of excellence (CoEs) for the various technical textiles. PSG College on Indutech in Coimbatore, DKTE College on Nonwovens at Ichalkaranji, and at ATIRA on Composites in Ahmedabad which provides support for the domestic and export market development of technical textiles and support for business start-ups.

Shri. Arun Jariwala, Chairman, Indian Technical Textiles Associtaion (ITTA) mentioned that Indian Technical Textile sector needs to focus on converters and we should develop converting machinery within India. Our industry should invest in R&D for indigenisation of technologies like nanotechnology, and plasma technology etc.

Shri. Rohit Mehta, President, SGCCI in his special address said that “Entrepreneurs in Surat should look at technical textiles as the emerging area with promising growth”.

In his welcome address, Mr. Rajnikant Marfatia, Executive Committee Member, FICCI said that “The technical textiles industry has grown to Rs. 63000 crores in 2011-12 from Rs. 43000 crores in 2007-08, which is a 11% growth per annum; and it is forecasted to grow to Rs. 158,000 crores by 2016-17 with a projected growth percentage of 20% growth per annum to be achieved.” He also said that there is a need of creating awareness amongst the masses about Technical Textiles to enable the sector to grow at its full potential.

There were around 41 exhibitors at the buyer seller meet, which attracted visitors from all parts of India and few from abroad. This buyer seller meet attracted a large number of visitors, majority of who were interested to have the information on investment in the escalating technical textile industry.

The exhibitors were from different product groups of machinery, raw material, fabric manufacturers and related accessories was open after the ribbon cutting by all the eminent Guests after which they made a guided tour to the exhibitor’s stalls of the leading players in this field like Arvind, SRF, Ginni, RSWM, Oerlikon, Zenith Fiber, Karl Mayer, ATE, Thea-Tex Healthcare, Pyrotek, Illies Engineering and others participated in the exhibition. The exhibition served as a platform to provide buyers with business opportunities and to tap the valuable consumer market.

The buyer-seller meet on both the days was preceded by informative sessions, in which experts discussed subjects like - overviews and opportunities, buyer’s perspective, emerging areas, technology and global markets all in context of the technical textiles sector.

The main objective of the event was to highlight the global and domestic scenario, disseminate information on standardization, emphasize on increase in usage of technical textiles products and increase awareness about the application of technical textiles amongst end-user industry.