The Jute Technology Mission (JTM) will be commissioned with a corpus of Rs 458.34 crore.
Announcing this here today, Kashiram Rana, central textiles minister, said JTM was scheduled to be launched shortly by the ministry of textiles in the current five-year plan with the co-operation of the ministries of agriculture and other connected ministries/departments.
Out of the total corpus, a sum of Rs 56.78 crore will come from the concerned state governments. Around Rs 90 crore would be allocated for developing retting technologies and Rs 63 crore was proposed to be spent on development of infrastructure and upgradation.
Rana said, the target was to set up 100 market yards in the jute growing states particularly in West Bengal, where the market infrastructure was weak.
In development of market yard scheme, the state government will be contributing 40 per cent as the share of the project cost. The proposals however were still under consideration of the Planning Commission.
The JTM proposal had put forward the concept of having four mini-missions with the objectives of increasing productivity, reducing quality retting, increasing availability of quality seeds and creating strong market linkages for raw jute by establishing or upgrading market infrastructure in jute growing states.
It also recommended providing reliable and accessible market information to the organised jute sector and developing and producing new diversified products.
Emphasis will be laid on increasing market share of diversified jute products, along with training of design development through research organisations and machines.
Sales of jute diversified products in domestic as well as in international markets have increased from Rs 308 crore to Rs 448 crore during 1996-97 to 1999-2000. The export of jute diversified products have increased from Rs 64 core to Rs 135 crore during 1997-98 to 2001-02.
The use of raw jute has also increased progressively in manufacture of these products.
In addition, Jute Manufacturers Development Council (JMDC) has been working with Indian Jute Industries Research Association (IJIRA) on projects on food grade jute bags, jute geo textiles, norms for jute products and study on low cost jute bags for the jute industry.
Textiles export to cross $15 bn
Textiles export will cross $15 billion this financial year as compared to $13 billion last year, said Kashiram Rana, textiles minister.
The figure is inclusive of jute and jute goods exports. In the first quarter this year exports were up by 16 per cent to $3 billion.
