Appreciating Union Minister Piyush Goyal for approving the Production Linked Incentives (PLI) scheme, Telangana Minister KT Rama Rao urged him to include the cotton segment to widen the scope of the scheme. Rao said, more than 50 per cent of consumption of textile products in India includes cotton as the base fiber which makes its inclusion in the PLI scheme necessary to invest in new projects.

It is also important to keep the cotton segment on par with MMF as the industry is gradually recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 and leading players are considering new investments. PLI or equivalent scheme for the cotton segment, will speed up the investments and help the Central government achieve its goal of 7.5 lakh employment even faster, Rao adds. The scheme will ensure better returns to a large number of cotton farmers, particularly from the cotton-growing states like Telangana.

Rao also urged Goyal to implement the Mega Investment Textiles Parks (MITRA) scheme to complement the PLI scheme. The MITRA scheme will encourage states and other developers to immediately launch their projects so that the industry can set up their manufacturing units in a short time, he said.