The government plans to increase production of its 50 man-made fiber and technical textile product categories.

Through the Rs 10,683-crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, India intends to grab a share in this pie. According to the draft PLI program, known as the “Focus Product Incentive Scheme”, India accounted for 4.3 per cent (or $35.5 billion) of global exports of textiles and apparel in 2019 but its share in the man-made fiber segment was much lower at 2.8 per cent ($9.3 billion). In fact, products based on man-made fibers made up for only 26 per cent of India’s exports, compared with almost 5 per cent% in China and 49% in Vietnam.

In fact, India’s exports of products in the 40 apparel categories, which are targeted under the PLI scheme, stood at just $1.1 billion in 2019, against $140 billion globally. Importantly, Bangladesh’s exports of these products were as much as $7.3 billion and Vietnam’s $14.8 billion.

As reported by FE, the PLI scheme for textiles marks a paradigm shift in the government’s decision-making on two counts. First, it earmarks big bucks for big companies, shedding its long and costly bias towards small businesses. Second, it seeks to correct India’s historical policy preference for a cotton-dominated value chain, which is contrary to the global trend. The idea is to reclaim India’s export markets after ceding substantial ground to Bangladesh and Vietnam in recent years.