Samarth scheme to train 10 lakh Indians in textile sector
Textiles minister Smriti Irani( 3rd left) chairing the stakeholders meeting on‘ Samarth’- Scheme for Capacity Building in Textiles Sector, in New Delhi on May 14, 2018. Pic courtesy: PIB
The Indian ministry of textiles has launched the‘ Samarth’ scheme in the organised and traditional textile clusters to develop skills among the youth to help them get gainful and sustainable employment. The scheme was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs( CCEA), which recently met under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Indian government has earmarked a budget of ₹ 1,300 crore covering the entire textile value chain, except spinning and weaving.
The scheme will have national skill qualification framework( NSQF)- compliant training courses with funding norms as per the common norms notified by ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship( MSDE). The scheme also will ensure 70 per cent placement of successful trainees.
The Samarth scheme aims to impart skills to nearly 10 lakh young people in the organised and traditional textile sectors over three years, said Synthetic and Rayon Textile Export Promotion Council( SRTEPC) chairman Narain Agarwal.
Special package has increased investments & jobs: AEPC
The ₹ 6,000 crore special package announced in 2016 by the Indian government for the textiles and apparel sector has not only boosted exports but has also helped in increasing investments, a survey conducted by the Apparel Export Promotion Council( AEPC) has found. The survey conducted to gauge the package’ s impact, terms it as a step in the right direction.
In the first twelve months of the roll out, the package had generated additional investment of around ₹ 2,500 crore and additional employment of around 1,00,000, the survey found.
The findings of the survey suggest that Rebate of State Levies( ROSL) had a positive impact on garment industry. After the implementation of the ROSL in September 2016, India’ s apparel exports increased by 2.7 per cent in value terms and grown by 6.4 per cent in volume terms, AEPC said in a press release.
TRADE
India’ s apparel exports decline 22.76 % in April
India’ s apparel exports in April 2018 were to the tune of $ 1.34 billion, registering a decline of 22.76 per cent against exports of $ 1.74 billion in the corresponding month of last year, as per the latest trade data. In rupee terms, exports for the month of April 2018 stood at ₹ 8,859.67 crore against ₹ 11,272.24 crore in April 2017, down 21.4 per cent.
“ The exports are in a negative territory since October due to a declining trend in the global apparel industry. The high base effect has been due to the release of rebate of state levies( RoSL) amount during April 2017 but the continued backlog in GST and RoSL is affecting the sentiments,” said HKL Magu, chairman, Apparel Export Promotion Council( AEPC).
In fiscal 2017-18 that ended on March 31, India’ s apparel exports fetched $ 16.71 billion, a decline of 3.83 per cent compared to exports of $ 17.38 billion in the previous financial year.
COTTON
ATIRA to help cut power consumption in cotton gins
The Ahmedabad Textile Industry’ s Research Association( ATIRA)
is working towards developing a technology to help cotton gins cut their power consumption by up to 40 per cent. This research and development project, spanning a year, was given to the association for the improvement of cotton ginning by the state government’ s industries and mines department.
The current ginning machinery has multiple moving parts and the association is working towards reducing the number of these parts to reduce power consumption by up to 40 per cent, media reports said quoting ATIRA’ s principal scientific officer RM Sankar. The decrease in moving parts will also reduce the number of spare parts used in the machinery, thus reducing the maintenance cost by close to 40 per cent, Sankar added.
MACHINERY
ICC Ltd consolidates card clothing production in Himachal Pradesh
ICC Ltd, a leading Indian company engaged in manufacturing card clothing products and card room accessories for the textile spinning industry, has consolidated its entire production at its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Nalagarh, Himachal Pradesh. The company has shifted all card clothing production from its Pune plant to the Nalagarh facility.
ICC ' s plant in Himachal Pradesh; Pic courtesy: ICC
The Himachal Pradesh plant currently specialises in addressing the card clothing requirement of the latest generation of carding machines. With the strategic move of closing down the Pune facility, ICC will now be focusing production from that plant and ensure that this single plant caters to the whole range of ICC’ s card clothing market.
ICC is also in the process of further automating the Himachal plant with more advanced technologies.
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