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National Technical Textiles Mission (NTTM)

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the setting up of the National Technical Textiles Mission with an aim to make India a leader of technical textiles globally.
In this article, we shall discuss at length the objectives of the mission along with its components and structure. All government and UPSC exam aspirants must carefully go through the various features of the mission.

About the National Technical Textiles Mission

Some important facts about the National Technical Textiles Mission have been discussed below: 

• Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the setting up of this mission
• The Mission would have a four year implementation period from FY 2020-21 to 2023-24
• A total outlay of Rs 1480 Crore has been finalised by the authorities for this mission
• A Mission Directorate will be operational in the Ministry of Textiles
• Mr Nihar Ranjan Dash has been appointed the Mission Coordinator for the National Technical Textiles Mission by the President of India
• The mission has been set up in lines with the Make in India initiative by the Government of the country

Technical Textiles – A Brief Background

To understand the significance of introducing a mission to promote technical textiles, it is important for one to understand what are technical textiles.
Technical Textiles are a futuristic and nice segment of textiles, which are used for various applications ranging from agriculture, roads, railway tracks, sportswear, health on one end to bulletproof jacket, fireproof jackets, high altitude combat gear and space applications on another end of the spectrum.

What are the Technical Textiles?
Technical textiles are textiles materials and products manufactured primarily for technical performance and functional properties rather than aesthetic characteristics. India shares nearly 6% of world market size of 250 Billion USD.
There are 12 broad categories under which the Techincal textiles can be divided, depending upon their application areas:

• Agrotech
• Buildtech
• Clothtech
• Geotech
• Hometech
• Indutech
• Mobiltech
• Meditech
• Protech
• Sportstech
• Oekotech
• Packtech

All Government exam aspirants must also read more about the SAATHI (Sustainable and Accelerated Adoption of efficient Textile technologies to Help small Industries) initiative. 

Objectives of the National Technical Textiles Mission

Given below are the basic aims and objectives behind setting up an independent mission for the development of technical textiles in India:

• The main aim is to get India the highest position in Technical Textiles at a global level
• This mission also aims at improving the penetration level of the technical textiles in the country. It must also be noted that the penetration level of technical textiles is low in India at 5-10%, against 30-70% in advanced countries.
• The authorities aim at increasing the global market for Indian technical textiles
• To simplify the objectives of the mission, it has been divided into four component as well
• The Mission will focus on the usage of technical textiles in various flagship missions, programmes of the country including strategic sectors

Components of National Technical Textiles Mission (NTTM)

Discussed below are the four components of NTTM.

• Component – l [Research, Innovation and Development]
  - It has an outlay of Rs.1000 crores
  - Two aspects will be promoted through this component:
  (i) Fundamental research at fiber level aiming at path-breaking technological products in Carbon Fibre, Aramid Fibre, Nylon Fiber, and Composites
  (ii) Application-based research in geo-textiles, agro-textiles, medical textiles, mobile textiles and sports textiles and development of bio­degradable technical textiles
  - Fundamental research will be conducted at CSIR laboratories, IIT, and other scientific/industrial/academic laboratories of repute
  - Application-based research will be conducted at CSIR, IIT, RDSO, ICAR, DRDO, NAL, etc.
• Component – II [Promotion and Market Development]
  - An average growth rate of 15 to 20% per annum will be targeted to take the level of domestic market size to 40-50 Billion USD by the year 2024
  - The medium of market development, market promotion, international technical collaborations, investment promotions, etc. will be utilised for the promotion and development of this mission
• Component – III [Export Promotion]
  - The current value of the export promotion of technical textiles is approximately Rs.14000 Crore, per annum
  - Through this component, the mission aims at increasing it to Rs.20000 Crore by 2021-22
  - It also aims at ensuring a 10% increase in the average growth of exports per year up to 2023-24
• Component – IV [Education, Training, Skill Development]
  - To meet the technologically challenging and fast-growing technical textiles segment, technical education at engineering level will be promoted through this mission
  - Highly skilled manpower will be created to meeting the requirement of the mission

With this four-year plan, the Government of India plans to promote and develop the Indian Technical Textiles manifolds, which will automatically affect the economic growth of the country.

Samarth Scheme

The Ministry of Textile is implementing Samarth Scheme, a flagship Scheme for Capacity Building in the Textiles Sector (SCBTS). It aims to train 10 lakh persons between 2017-2020. Recently, it is in the news as due to the COVID-19 led nationwide lockdown, the scheme was halted in various states. The Samarth Scheme intends to provide skill development and placement oriented training across the entire textiles value chain, excluding spinning and weaving in the organised sector.
Hence, it is imperative to the IAS Exam candidates to learn the relevant facts about this scheme.

Objectives of the Samarth Scheme

• It will provide National Skills Framework Qualification (NSFQ) compliant skilling programmes to over 10 lakh persons.
• The skilling programmes offered under Samarth Scheme aim to incentivize and supplement the efforts of the Textile industry.
• The scheme aims to create more jobs in the textile and related sectors that will cover the entire value chain of the textile but will exclude spinning and weaving.
• Traditional sectors of handlooms, handicrafts, sericulture and jute will be upgraded through skilling and skill upgradation.
• Through skill upgradation of lakhs of persons, it aims to induce self-employment capabilities among youth and others.
• It aims to promote sustainable livelihood to all sections of society.

Salient Features of Samarth Scheme

• Training of Trainers (ToT) – That will provide enhanced facilitation skills to the master trainers.
• Aadhar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) – That will ensure the credibility of the trainers and the beneficiaries.
• CCTV recording of training programmes – To avoid major conflicts in the functioning of the scheme, training institutes will be fixed with CCTVs.
• Dedicated call centre with helpline number –
• Mobile app-based Management Information System (MIS)
• On-line monitoring of training processes

The central government has approved the scheme with a total outlay of Rs.1300 crores.

Brief Overview of Indian Textile Sector

• Around 14 percent of industrial production comes from the textile industry.
• Indian textile industry contributes around 4 percent in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
• It contributes 17 percent to its export earnings.
• Over 3.5 crores people are employed in the Indian textile industry — second largest after agriculture.

Government Initiatives to Promote Textile Industry

• To boost start-ups and innovative ideas in the textile sector, the Indian government plans to establish a venture capital fund (Rs. 100 crores).
• Another major initiative to promote the textile sector is allowance of 100 percent FDI through automatic route.
• Integrated Processing Development Scheme (IPDS) was launched during the 12th Five Year Plan to create brownfield and greenfield projects with modern facilities to benefit the textile clusters.
• Government launched the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) to boost investments in textile and related sectors in 1999.
• Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks (SITP) was launched in 2005 to attract investments in the textile sector.
• To boost the power loom sector, the government launched the PowerTex India Scheme in 2017.
• To increase the productivity of the domestic silk, the Silk Samagra Scheme has been launched.
• In 2015, the government launched Jute-I CARE for jute cultivators.

Frequently Asked Questions related to the Samarth Schemes

How will the Samarth Scheme be monitored?

A centralized web-based Management Information System (MIS) has been put in place for monitoring and implementation of the scheme. MIS shall act as an integrated platform for registration and empanelment of Implementing Agencies.

Who will the Samarth Scheme target?

The Scheme would target to train 10.00 lakh persons (9 lakhs in organised & 1 lakh in traditional sector).