Apparel November 2019 Apparel November 2019 issue | Page 90

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
THIS MEGA-BLOW ACTS
MORE LIKE AN EYE-OPENER
AT PRESENT AND DOES MAKE
US LOOK CLOSER INTO THE
ONGOING TEXTILE POLICIES IN
OTHER STATES.
Apart from these shortcomings, the policy was
also supposed to tackle the opening of six textile
parks with integrated facilities in different areas of
the state. This, as per the terms of the policy, was
to be done with the involvement of enterprises
from the private sector. However, some of the
parks had either remained non-starters, and
others were far behind schedule.
DELAY IN REPORT
The CAG report has mentioned that R6.35 crore
were released for a special-purpose vehicle in
Kalaburagi despite its failure to meet the required
conditions. Alongside this, R84.53 crore were
released for the implementation of various other
schemes prescribed by the policy. However, most
of these funds have remained in the bank ever
88
I APPAREL I
November 2019
since they were sanctioned, without utilisation.
The report also went on to say that the release of
subsidy or incentive to beneficiaries qualifying for
the scheme happened at a snail’s pace, which
lowered the working capital for such units and
ultimately failed to showcase the progress that
was expected from them.
With the Government aiming to become a US$
five trillion economy in the next five years, this
textile policy failure is a big setback. This comes
at a time when the Union Budget declarations
made special budgetary allocations for the
industry by increasing Amended Technology
Upgradation Fund Scheme (ATUFS) by 12.4
per cent and the grant for Integrated Skill
Development Scheme (ISDS) by about 139.3 per
cent, to R100.5 crore, as opposed to
R42 crore as of 2018.
POLICY EYE-OPENER
This mega-blow acts more like an eye-opener at
present and does make us look closer into the
ongoing textile policies in other states, namely
Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana, and Andhra
Pradesh. The Maharastra state government
had sent out a release in February last year,
mentioning the policy updates prevailing in the
state. As per the report, Maharastra initiated the
Textile Policy 2011–17 in January 2012, with an
objective of achieving 100 per cent processing
of all the cotton grown in the state. The policy, as
per reports, had led to investments to the tune
of R20,000 crore in the sector with employment-
generation of three lakh in order to fulfil and
achieve the ‘fibre-to-fashion’ vision in the state.
Looking at the achievements of this policy in
the state of Maharastra, the same was renewed
for another term and the new Textile Policy
2018–23 was initiated in 2018. Piggybacking
on the pivotal mission of creating a fibre-to-
fashion value chain, this policy aims to create
“10 lakh new employments in the next five years”.