IMPRESSIONS from a Cross-section

The textiles sector is one of the largest contributors to India's exports with approximately 11 per cent of total exports. The Indian textile industry contributes approximately 5 per cent to India's gross domestic product (GDP), and 14 per cent to overall index of industrial production (IIP). The Indian textiles industry, currently estimated at around $108 billion, is expected to reach $223 billion by 2021.

As per a research by ITME, global shipments of large circular knitting machines has increased by 27 per cent from 28,900 in 2011 to 36,640 in 2012, was a new record. The total investment of India is 1,600 (4.4 per cent) in this sector.

Installed Capacities in Indian textile sector

Description	Capacities
Spindles	44.73 million.
Rotors	7.95 lakh
Looms	52,000 No.
Power Loom	23.67 lakh
Man-made Fibres	1781.6 million. Kgs.
Man-Made Filament	2248.03 million. Kgs.

Source: Office of Textile Commissioner

Around 87 per cent of the total production, i.e., textile machinery is coming from the six clusters namely Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Ludhiana, Mumbai and Surat. The growth rate of per capita spend on garment is highest for India and China, which is 11 per cent. 

The Indian textiles industry accounts for about 24 per cent of the world's spindle capacity and 8 per cent of global rotor capacity. It has the highest loom capacity (including hand looms) with 61 per cent of the world's market share. The potential size of the Indian textiles and apparel industry is expected to reach $223 billion by 2021. But the major problem in the textile machinery manufacturing industry is the lack of investment in research and development. The Indian textile industry must invest in research and development as well, to become global leaders.

The Indian textile engineering sector seems to offer the modern technically advanced machinery for spinning, weaving and processing sector as well as simple machinery required in ginning and pressing industry of the sector. Still the performance of the Indian textile machinery industry is far from satisfactory. Competition from high-tech European and South-East Asian countries is a real challenge to the very existence of the Indian textile machinery industry.