India to achieve $40 billion textile exports this fiscal: Gangwar

Textile Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar has said that India's textile exports will achieve $40 billion during this fiscal. Although this expectation is lower than the target of $47.5 billion set by the government for textile and clothing for 2015-16. Gangwar said that China and India were competing in export market and a day will come when India will catch up with the neighbouring country.

On the growing technical textile industry, Gangwar said that it is an emerging sector for textiles and the potential remains largely untapped in India. The projected growth rate for technical textile is about 20 per cent year-on-year. He also stressed on the need to improve focus on this sector of the textile industry. Technical textile has differentiated itself from apparels or textile materials and products used for non- aesthetic purposes with emphasis on technical performance and functional properties.

The government had set the textile and clothing export target at $47.5 billion for the current fiscal, aiming for an almost 14% rise in outbound shipments from the actual level of 2014-15. The country’s overall textile and garment exports grew roughly 5% in the last fiscal to $41.4 billion from a year before.