February 2007 has been a good month for India in the global stage. India has flexed its muscle in the manufacturing sector with the taking over of Corus by Tata Steel and the agreement by Aditya Birla Group's Hindalco to acquire Canadian Novelis. These recent events showcase the growing confidence in the Indian manufacturing sector, which has trailed behind China. As Indian political and business leaders agree that for a double digit economic growth, just a boom in the service/IT sector is not sufficient. There needs to be a sustained growth in manufacturing and agricultural sectors.

2006-07 growth in manufacturing has been 11%, which is encouraging and there is potential to have improvement. The Union Government's priority in the 11th Five Year Plan is to have an inclusive growth and not a faster growth. This can happen only when there is growth in textile, general manufacturing and agricultural sectors that supports huge employment. Current figures in traditional textiles sector is encouraging but how long such a growth will continue as the major contributor to this growth is from export. We are lagging behind China in our exports to USA and EU and in market size of imported apparels in the US even tiny country like Bangladesh is doing equally good as India.

Regional countries in the Americas already enjoy tariff free trade regime with USA under the Central America-Dominican Republic Trade Agreement. This and other regional and bilateral agreements of the USA with other countries will offset the low cost comparative advantage India has with industrialized nations. Such a situation also exists in Europe with several Eastern European countries that have cost advantages. What should India do to leapfrog on the current positive scenario? To branch out in to value-added textiles that are disposable and semidurable goods is the answer. Semidurable technical textiles are predominantly nonwovens that are used in automobiles.

The interest and hunger to acquire small to medium sized passenger cars among Indian consumers is so high now that leading car companies are forming consortiums to come up with affordable passenger cars. Mahindra Group is partnering with Renault and Nissan with an investment of Rs. 4000 Crores to produce 4 lakh vehicles per year. As we know in each vehicle there will be approximately 25 kgs. of nonwovens used. This means, there will be a need of at least 100 lakh kgs. of nonwovens for this consortium alone.

This is a huge opportunity for needlepunched, airlaid and thermalbonding manufacturers. Soon, there needs to be a dialogue between the nonwoven technical textiles industry and automotive sectors to help each other for developing cost effective vehicles in India. In another area, in the retail sector, three major groups, Reliance, Aditya Birla and Bharati-Walmart are trying to capture the middle class and above average income population. Naturally, in all these mega-chain stores a lot of disposable products will be nonwovens such as baby diapers, spunlaced wipes, domestic cleaning items, etc. To cater to this growing consumer market in India at an affordable price there is no adequate nonwoven manufacturing capability. India currently has a pulling consumer base that is in need of disposable and semidurable products to make an Aam Aadmi get addicted to such products for his/her life style enhancement products where cost will be the driving force. And to be competitive, the conventional textile sector is not the panacea. The need of the hour is high productive and relatively low cost technologies that have mass production capabilities.

Here, nonwovens and technical textiles offer enormous opportunities. International organizations such as INDA are very well aware of the growing market size and opportunities for nonwoven industries in India and hence are coming to India with a big bang. The US based Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry (INDA) organizes a very big conference once in every 3 years known as International Engineered Fabrics Conference and Expo IDEA which attracts over 5000 visitors.

This year in April, for the first time in its history the expo IDEA-07 in Miami Beach, Florida kicks off with a special session on India. Mr. J. N. Singh, the Textile Commissioner of India is talking about the developments in India's technical textile industry and Mr. Sowmitra Chaudhuri of ICRA Ltd., India is talking about India as economic superpower. The importance given to India in the world's largest gathering on nonwovens and engineered fabrics shows the growing power of India in technical textiles. All stake holders in India should seize this opportunity and create an Apollo 11 mission for nonwoven and technical textiles in India. This is certainly needed for an inclusive double digit economic growth in the 11th Five Year Plan.

Courtesy: Colourage

About the author:

Dr. Seshadri Ramkumar is Assistant Professor at Nonwoven and Advanced Materials Laboratory, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA. He is also Co-Chairman of INDA-India Committee, INDA, USA. He has come to India to promote Nonwoven Fabrics Industry.

Email: Seshadri.Ramkumar@TIEHH.TTU.edu

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