At the ASSOCHAM Foundation Week 2020, Smriti Irani, Union Ministry of Textiles, informed, the ministry aims to restructure its operations to launch the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for technical textiles and manmade fibre (MMF) segment. Irani said, the union government has ensured technological aid for the MSP operations and economic benefits for those who participate in these operations. She also urged the industry to conjoin its efforts with the farming community and increase the production of ELS cotton from four lakh bales to 50 lakh bales. In the first two months of this current marketing year starting October 01, 2020, Central government purchased cotton worth Rs 14,654 crore from 9.63 farmers, reports Financial Express. The government now plans to launch a Rs 10,000-crore production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for man-made textiles. India’s leverage to the use of technology in agriculture and its plans to digitize transactions offers it a huge opportunity to increase cotton production from the current 4-5 lakh bales to 50 lakh bales a year.

Niranjan Hiranandani, President, ASSOCHAM assured industry’s full support to the government’s aim to become an Aatmanirbhar Bharat and $5 trillion economy. Dipali Goenka, CEO and Joint Managing Director, Welspun India urged the industry to focus on MMF and technical textiles while Priya Agarwal Hebbar, Director, Vedanta called for support to the underprivileged. T Rajkumar, Chairman, Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) hailed the launch of first-ever cotton brand ‘Kasturi’ that would help Indian cotton stakeholders get good price realization for their cotton products.