Kerala wants to revive its textile industry with a one-time capital infusion and a sustainable development and modernisation strategy. The 17 mills, in the public and cooperative sectors, offer direct employment to 5,000 and indirect employment to 15,000. Though not in the pink of health, they still earn an annual revenue of Rs 100 crores after making statutory payments to the exchequer.

Problems include a supply and demand mismatch, high cotton prices, low realisation from yarn sales, labor absenteeism due to uncertainty, and mounting dues to raw material suppliers and other commitments.

The hope is that a thorough intervention, monitoring, and one-time financial assistance will increase the capacity utilisation of the mills from the present 55.40 per cent to 98.50 per cent.

Strategies include a thorough modernisation, training, creation of a conducive milieu to win workers’ confidence, and the creation of a central purchasing and monitoring system. Moreover, the products will be channelised for distributing school uniforms and also other textile needs of various departments.

A one-time capital infusion will be resorted to as Rs 521.09 crores granted in different phases during the past one decade have not done any good in bailing out the industry from the red. The interest rate will be cut from 11.5 per cent to 10.35 per cent.