India to host 81st ICAC plenary meeting in Mumbai from Dec 2-5

This will be the first in-person plenary meeting since 2019 due to COVID-19 pandemic. The theme of this meeting is ‘Cotton Value Chain: Local Innovations for Global prosperity’.

Associate hosts are the Cotton Corporation of India Limited (CCI), the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) and the Cotton Association of India (CAI).

The previous such event was hosted by India in 2015 with the theme ‘From Farm to Fabric: The Many Faces of Cotton’, focusing on value addition.

This is also the fifth time that the ICAC plenary meeting is being held in India in the last six decades, a textiles ministry release said.

The 80th plenary meeting was held through virtual platform between November and December last year with the theme ‘Driving Sustainability through Innovation and Leadership’.  

Indian minister of textiles and commerce and industry Piyush Goyal will inaugurate the meeting.

The 81st plenary aims to serve as a platform for sharing innovations, benchmarks, sound practices and experiences across the globe on productivity, climate resilience and circularity for a vibrant cotton economy.

The focus will be on local innovations and cutting edge technologies for sustainability developed locally but have global implications and potential for the prosperity of the cotton value chain touching the livelihoods of millions engaged in production, processing, trade, fashion and textile industry.

After the plenary meeting, a technical tour has been arranged for interested delegates in and around Ahmedabad.

India is also gearing up to host the world's largest textile exposition, Bharat Tex 2024, from February 26 to 29 next year in New Delhi.

Formed in 1939, ICAC is an inter-governmental body covering cotton recognised by the United Nations. It has 28 members. India, Brazil, Egypt, France, Sudan and the United States were the founding members.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)