With its upcoming Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors' Summit (VGGIS) 2011, the Government of Gujarat plans to focus specifically on technical textiles this time.
As a run-up to the summit, the state government held a seminar on technical textiles alongwith Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) with the support of Industrial Extension Bureau (iNDEXTb), Ahmedabad Textile Industries Research Association (ATIRA) and Man Made Textile Research Association (MANTRA).
The objective of this seminar was to bring together relevant government agencies, private sector players and; external consultants and advisors to deliberate over the current status and scope of future development and investment opportunities in the Technical Textiles sector in Gujarat.
Speaking at the seminar, Saurabh Patel, minister of state for industries, Government of Gujarat said, "The state government will have a special focus on technical textiles at the event. Which is why, the first of a series of seminars has been inaugurated with technical textiles. It is interesting to note the scale of discussions on various topics ranging from developing bag house filtration to geo-textiles and geogrid in India. The country is an ideal location for spunlaid non-wovens."
Technical textiles are the emerging area for investment in India given that the potential of technical textiles in India was still untapped. Technical textiles represent a multidisciplinary field with numerous end-user applications. The production of different items of technical textile industry has been slowly but steadily increasing in the country. India's technical textile industry will be worth $12-15 billion by 2012, which will be 12% of the global value. Consumption of nonwovens and technical textiles in India is also expected to grow by an additional 150% in 2012, in tune with the country’s GDP growth. In the present scenario, technical textiles have been identified as a great area of potential for upgrading the Indian textile industry.
The seminar saw a host of international and national companies' speaker participation like Gherzi Eastern Ltd, DuPont, Lenzing Fibres, Arvind Mills, with their top officials discussing the growth and opportunities in technical textiles.
Going forward, in the months of November and December 2010, the Government of Gujarat will be organising a total of 10 seminars on sectors as diverse as pharmaceuticals, tourism, agro and food processing, healthcare, mineral-based industries, chemicals and petrochemicals, information technology and bio technology.