Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and Textiles urged stakeholders in the textile industry to strive to move up the value chain and focus on high-value products. At a review meeting in New Delhi, he was interacting with beneficiaries of the Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) for textiles.
He asked the recipients to focus on improving the quality of Indian textile products in order to make them world-class. The Indian textile industry's competitive advantage should not be limited to low labour costs, according to the Minister. He demanded that textile workers be fairly compensated, provided with social security, and transferred to the formal sector.
Goyal acknowledged the textile sector's inherent ability to create jobs and drive both growth and exports and stated that textiles were one of the sectors identified by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as having enormous potential.
The Minister stated that the centre was considering PLI 2.0 and directed Ministry officials to conduct extensive and exhaustive stakeholder consultations before finalising the contours of PLI 2.0. He challenged them to make PLI 2.0 more robust, emphasising that PLI 2.0 would enable the sector to compete globally with top exporting countries such as China and Vietnam.
Representatives from 49 companies and key dignitaries from the Ministry of Textiles attended the review meeting, which was presided over by the Minister. Under the PLI Textile Part 1, 67 applicants applied, of which 64 were chosen, and 55 of these 64 companies formed participant companies. The total proposed investment for the scheme's entire tenure is INR 19,789 Cr, of which INR 1,536 Cr has already been invested.
A review meeting was held to understand the status of the Scheme's projects and to resolve any issues that arose. Companies praised the Ministry for the PLI scheme. Several procedural issues were clarified during the meeting for ease of understanding. NICDC announced the availability of ready-to-go land with plug-and-play facilities in Dholera, Aurangabad, Greater NOIDA, and Indore.
The Minister also directed the Ministry team to actively engage with the participants and help them resolve state and administrative issues. He urged textile industry participants to work with a sense of duty, a 'kartavya bhavana,' to aim higher and dream bigger in order to propel the Indian textile industry to new heights.
