Proposals invited to put textiles industry back on rails

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MAY 8. The Union Textiles Minister, Mr. Kashiram Rana, today called upon the textile industry to give concrete suggestions to put a brake on the slowdown witnessed during the past few months and bring the industry back on the rails.

Addressing a meeting of the recently reconstituted development council of the industry, he said the Government was fully aware that the industry had started signs of deceleration since December after showing clear signs of recovery from the aftermath of the Southeast Asian crisis of 1997.

Assuring that the Government was constantly monitoring the situation, Mr. Rana said the deceleration appeared to be due to both economic slowdown in the U.S., which is a major market for Indian textile products, and reduced demand within the country. The industry could help by analysing the causes in depth and coming out with concrete suggestions to remedy the situation, he added.

Mr. Rana also called upon the industry to come out with a set of recommendations to give a major push to textiles exports during the Tenth Plan period, which is beginning next year. Exports during the current plan period had been good but were not as much as during the Eighth Plan period. A working group set up by the Planning Commission to work out the strategy for textiles and jute in the Tenth Plan period was looking into the issue and suggestions from the industry could be helpful, he added.

Mr. V. Dhananjaya Kumar, Minister of State for Textiles, urged the industry to come on a common platform to meet the emerging international competition on account of the phasing out of the export quota regime by 2005. An umbrella organisation for the industry as a whole was the need of the hour and the development council could play a major role in this, he added.

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