India pushing its textiles through free trade deals

New Delhi: India is pitching for greater market access for its textiles sector as part of the free trade deals, which are under negotiations with countries like the United Kingdom and Oman, Textiles Secretary Rachna Shah said on Tuesday.

“Textiles would be one of our major interests in getting more concessional access,” Shah told reporters.

India is negotiating free trade deals with several countries including the United Kingdom, Oman and the European Union.

Shah said India’s textiles exports have been impacted in the current fiscal due to poor demands in the US and European countries. “While we are continuing to strengthen our ties with these markets we are also looking at other markets,” she said

According to Shah, the other markets where India is pushing its textiles exports include Australia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Japan. India has already signed free trade pacts with these countries.

Shah said the government targets to boost textiles production through the initiatives like production-linked incentive (PLI)  scheme and PM Mega Integrated Textile Regions and Apparel (PM-MITRA) parks.

Under the PM-MITRA scheme, seven mega textiles clusters are proposed to be set up in as many states – Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.  

Talking to DH, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Textiles Rohit Kansal said land acquisition work for almost all the seven proposed textiles parks has been completed.  

In Karnataka, the textiles park will be set up in Kalaburagi district. The state government has allocated 1000 acres of land for the textiles park near Ferozabad at Kalaburagi-Jewargi Road in Kalaburagi district.

“This year we will have significant progress,” said Kansal, adding the process of forming special purpose vehicles (SPV) is underway that would take up the infrastructure development work at the mega parks.

Each park will be led by a SPV created for this purpose. The SPVs will be a joint venture between the centre and the respective state governments. States will control the majority 51% stake in the SPV, while the centre will own the remaining 49% stake.

Kansal said MoUs worth over Rs 13,000 crore have been signed with different companies for development of the mega parks.  

“Through PM-MITRA park we are hoping to integrate the entire value chain. That will help reduce logistics costs and we will be able to set up integrated units,” said textiles secretary Shah.

She said under the scheme the central government will provide Rs 500 crore financial support for development of required infrastructure at each park. Additional Rs 300 crore will be provided as incentives to companies who set up their units in the early stage.

The mega parks are expected to enhance the competitiveness of the textiles industry by helping it achieve economies of scale as well as attract global players to manufacture in India, she added.