The 10th Annual General Meeting of ITTA was held on December 16, 2020 under the chairmanship of Dr Sundararaman KS, chairman, ITTA. Key Note address was given by Punit Lalbhai, executive director, Arvind Ltd. In knowledge session, Ian Thomson, technical director, Rockman Advanced Composites, UK and Barry Goodwin, MD, Amba Projex, UK shared their experience.

 

Business session was conducted by Amit Agarwal, vice chairman, ITTA.

 

Dr Anup Rakshit, executive director, ITTA, welcomed the ITTA members, eminent speakers, special invitee and representatives of press present in the meeting. In his brief welcome address, he pointed out that this year ITTA has successfully completed glorious 10 years. This year we have organized AGM in a little different way. There will be a Key note address by an Industry Leader followed by the Knowledge Session. Two eminent speakers from UK will be speaking in knowledge session on very interesting subjects, latest technology on fibres and fabrics used in composites and coating and lamination technology employed in prepreg composites. Thanking the ministry of textile, government of India, Rakshit highlighted that this year two major schemes on technical textiles have been announced by the ministry. One is the National Technical Textile Mission (NTTM) with a outlay of Rs 1480 crore for 4 years wherein four components are included and the other is Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme on technical textiles & man-made fibres segments with an outlay of 10,683 crore. Both the schemes put together will give boost to the technical textile industry in coming years.

 

Dr Sundararaman K S, chairman, ITTA, in his presidential address welcomed the members, distinguished speakers and directors of ITTA and also expressed his happiness on the large number of members present in the AGM. Sundararaman highlighted that ITTA has been in forefront of responding the Covid-19 crisis at the national level. He explained in detail that in the process of supporting the domestic PPE manufacturing sector within the country, ITTA had also on multiple forums represented the cause of exporters at the level of facemask, PPE, laminated fabric, etc and relentlessly working with the government to come out with the balance solution of catering to both the Indian needs as well as taking care of the exports. 

 

ITTA further requested the government to lift the ban on the melt blown fabrics and we have been indicated that it will happen soon. He said that during the Covid-19 pandemic we have created a completely new segment of 7,000 crores because of the fabric manufacturers in India. On multiple fronts, overall technical textile industry will be growing rapidly in the coming years. Sundararaman talked about the ITTA’s engagement with the government wherein he informed that today NTTM comprises of multiple of steering committees to layout and execute the vision of NTTM. ITTA is the part of these committees at the apex level. He also mentioned that ITTA has also been interested in creating the Export Promotion Council (EPC) on technical textiles and they have made the applications/ representation for the same to the government. 

 

Sundararaman pointed out that there has been an unprecedented amount of focus in the government on growing technical textile which started with the 207 list of HSN codes, 92 mandatory items, NTTM and recently PLI scheme was introduced. In addition to the PLI scheme, the Govt. of India is looking at creating the international linkages to both grow the profile of Indian technical textiles as well as to bring international testing agencies into the country. ITTA mooted an idea which is been taken up by the govt and today the govt of India is working with govt of Telangana to create a world class testing labs in the state of Telangana. ITTA is also working closely with the BIS for the formulation of Indian standards on technical textiles.

 

Punit Lalbhai spoke about the global market, where India stands in it and to frame what opportunities technical textile brings to the country. “Globally, the technical textile industry is a large market and it’s growing at a steady rate for 4-5 per cent. It is focused on a diverse set of applications; a lot of them are unlike conventional textiles core to the end users and it’s also have a very high potential of innovation & high end value,” Lalbhai said in a press release.

 

“There are many impediments such as strict quality and qualification control; buyers not educated about the values in many cases, etc to growth of technical textile however we have a lot of opportunities in this field. There is robust global market waiting for this industry and both domestic consumption and export will be growing rapidly,” Lalbhai said.