India to launch its own branded cotton

Govt plans to revise 'Technology Mission on Cotton' to allow branding, contract farming

Following the success of branded cotton from Egypt and the US, the government is considering branding of the locally produced fibre to fetch premium prices from overseas importers.

Textiles Commissioner Kavita Gupta has held several rounds of meetings with various stakeholders of the industry, including traders, ginners, textile mills and garment manufacturers, to draft guidelines for revising the “Technology Mission on Cotton” (TMC). The revised TMC will allow exporters to improve the quality of Indian cotton, with less contamination, trash and staple length in the raw fibre, almost similar to Egyptian and US cotton currently available. Apart from that, the TMC