India 2018

Industry 351
consumption basket of the Indian textile industry, the proportion of cotton is
around 59 per cent. Cotton sustains the livelihood of an estimated 5.8 million
cotton farmers and 40- 50 million people engaged in related activities such as
cotton processing and trade.India has the largest area under cotton in the world
with around 105 lakh hectares under cotton cultivation which is around 35 per
cent of the world area. During 2016-17, India's productivity was 540.80 kg/ha.
India has emerged as the largest producer of cotton in the world with production
of 345 lakh bales in 2016-17 and 2 nd largest exporter of cotton. To support the
cotton industry, Government of India announces Minimum Support Price (MSP)
for two basic staples groups viz., medium staple and long staple cotton. Cotton
Corporation of India (CCI), a Public Sector Undertaking under the Textile
Ministry, is the principal agency of Government of India for undertaking MSP
operations in the event of prevailing seed cotton (kapas) price touching the
MSP level.
Jute
India is the largest producer of jute in the world with an average production of
about 80 lakh bales of raw jute annually. The Government of India provides
support to the jute growers not only through MSP operation by the Jute
Corporation of India but also through direct purchase of jute sacking valued at
around ` 6000 crore annually for packing foodgrains by invoking provisions
under the Jute Packaging Material (Compulsory Use in Packing Commodities)
Act, 1987. This is a major support not only to the jute farmers but also to jute
mill workers. A software platform "Jute-SMART" (Jute Sacking Supply
Management & Requisition Tool) was implemented for procurement of jute
sacking from 2016. Through this software, different state government agencies
are procuring jute bags of around 27.0 to 30.0 lakh bales (68.0 per cent of the
total production of jute goods) annually valued at about. ` 7,000 crores. This
platform is an excellent example of e-Governance where multiple stakeholders
are on the same platform managing the complex transactions relating to
procument of jute sacking in a transparent and fair manner for a number of
state governments from a number of jute mills involving various intermediaries.
Jute - ICARE has been launched for increasing the income of jute farmers by at
least 50 per cent through promotion of certified seeds, better agronomic practices
and use of microbial retting of the jute plant. The programme has shown
enormous promise so far.
Technical Textiles
Technical textiles are the future of the textiles Industry. High tenacity fibers are
the lightest and toughest fabrics yet. They have a variety of applications in
automobile, aerospace, architecture and building, occupational therapy, sport
and apparel industries etc. Eleven Focus Incubation Centers (FICs) have been
established on plug and play model at a cost of ` 59.35 crore, five in COEs and
six in IITs (Delhi, Bombay, Kanpur and Kharagpur) in order to help the potential
entrepreneurs to enter into technical textiles. 44 Demonstration Centers in North-
East (NE) Region and 9 Demonstration Centers in Rest of India have been set