Plan to expand power loom upgradation scheme to more clusters

Textile Commissioner Kiran Soni Gupta (second right) handing over subsidy under the In-Situ upgradation scheme for plain power loom, in Coimbatore, on Monday. (right) Swami Dayananda Saraswathi speaking at the inauguration of SITRA’s Centre of Excellence for Medical Textiles. SITRA chairman D. Krishnamurthy (second left) and Director Prakash Vasudevan (left) are in the picture.—Photos: K. Ananthan

The In-Situ Upgradation Scheme for Plain Power Looms has been extended to Salem and Erode power loom clusters and enables weavers modernise the plain power looms, according to Textile Commissioner Kiran Soni Gupta.

The scheme helped even a small-scale weaver use technology and produce better products. It was now available for units that had maximum eight looms each and only in select power loom clusters. “We have requested that the scheme should be expanded pan India and should be available to all power loom units, irrespective of the number of looms,” she said. The scheme had been approved for Erode and Salem power loom clusters too.

It helped the weavers go in for other benefits available for power looms. For instance, there were 10 proposals from Coimbatore to set up yarn banks and two had been approved. The weavers could be organised as a group and a company could be formed to make use of assistance available from the Small Industries’ Development Bank of India.

There were 23 lakh power looms in the country and just about 1.75 lakh were modernised. China had machinery manufacturing facilities and capacity to produce large volume of textile products. Almost 95 per cent of textile machinery was imported in India. This was an area of opportunity for entrepreneurs.

With China looking at high value products, and countries such as Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Cambodia and Turkey emerging as significant players in the textile and clothing sector, the units in South East Asian countries should collaborate and tap the opportunities.

At a function held here on Monday, she distributed Rs. 64.16 lakh to owners of 76 power loom units in Somanur and as many as 552 power looms had been upgraded.

According to a press release from the Regional Office of the Textile Commissioner here, the In-Situ Upgradation Scheme for Plain Power Looms was launched in Somanur cluster and so far, 107 units (totally 800 power looms) had benefited and obtained Rs. 87.28 lakh subsidy under the scheme. The units get Rs. 15,000 maximum subsidy to upgrade each power loom.

Medical textiles

Earlier, participating at the inaugural of a new building for the Centre of Excellence for Technical Textiles, the Textile Commissioner said that the Ministry of Textiles has established eight centres of excellence for 12 segments of technical textiles at a total cost of Rs. 200 crore. There were several speciality fibres that were important for technical textiles and research was needed on these. Young entrepreneurs had opportunities in these segments as the prototypes created could be developed into products for various applications. “The future of the textile industry is in technical textiles,” she said.

Swami Dayananda Saraswati of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam inaugurated the centre and said that there were several possibilities for research in the medical sector.

S. Ramalingam, principal at PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, said that there should be more focus on preventive technology. Now it was more on tertiary care technology. The centre should focus its research and development programmes on preventive technology.

D. Krishnamurthy, chairman of South India Textile Research Association, said the new building for the Centre of Excellence at the association premises for medical textiles was constructed at a total cost of Rs. 6.5 crore and had 60,000 sq.ft built up area. The association had contributed the entire fund for the building.