Staff Reporter
Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu today called for upskilling the workforce in textile and apparel sectors and adopting state of art technologies to gain competitiveness in exports to capture the global market.
He said that though India has a strong base of raw material and skilled workforce, the country is lagging in global fabric exports because of the use of outdated technology and mostly smaller sized firms.
Launching the Virtual Platform of the Apparel Products of the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), he said India cannot manufacture quality items and export at competitive prices unless the average size of the apparels firm grows and adopts latest technologies. The Vice President said concerted efforts must be made to deliver the benefits of the scheme to the firms in second and third-tier towns and rural areas.
Mr Naidu appreciated the Amended Technology Up-gradation Fund Scheme as an excellent scheme that can give a boost to small scale firms and it will go a long way in promoting Indian apparel exports around the world.
Noting that India’s share in global textile exports was just 6 per cent, the Vice President said the small scale businesses need hand-holding and should be supported in scaling up and improving the quality to match global competitors. He commended NITI Aayog’s plans to work with the textiles ministry to set up mega textile firms to boost exports.
