Centre clears 23 strategic textile projects worth Rs60 crore

These strategic research projects cleared by the union minister of textiles, Piyush Goyal, fall under the flagship programme ‘National Technical Textiles Mission.’

Among these 23 research projects, 12 projects of Speciality Fibres have applications in areas such as agriculture, smart textiles, healthcare, strategic application and protective gears. Four Sustainable Textiles projects have applications in agriculture and healthcare sectors. Others include 5 projects in Geotextile, 1 in Mobiltech and 1 in Sportech.

Member NITI Aayog (Science & Tech) and Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) along with the related ministries provided inputs pertaining to technical textile for the meeting. Leading Institutes, including IITs, government organisations, and eminent industrialists, among others, participated in the session which cleared projects strategic to the development of Indian economy and towards ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, especially in the areas of healthcare, industrial and protective gear, energy storage, agriculture and infrastructure.

“Industry and academia connect is essential for the growth of research and development in the application areas of Technical Textiles in India. Building convergence with academicians, scientists and researchers is the need of the hour,” Piyush Goyal said while addressing the esteemed group of scientists and technologists.

The minister emphasised on the importance of contributions of technology and segment experts, scientists and academicians to the future growth of India’s technical textiles industry.

Goyal also pointed that the technological gap in the country needs address in the field of technical textiles. Identification of the area of research in technical textiles with industry interaction and promotional activities like conferences, exhibition, and buyer-seller meet to promote the use of Technical Textile in the country and to increase the exports to be the key focus areas.