Onus to face pandemic crisis on textile sector: Govt official

Later, the 61st annual general meeting of SIMA re-elected Ashwin Chandran as its chairman, Ravi Sam as deputy chairman and S K Sundararaman as vice-chairman for 2020-21, the release said.

The textile industry has to manage the COVID-19 crisis on its own and face the challenge in value addition while the government would be a facilitator and support the industry, Textile Commissioner, Mumbai, Roop Rashi said on Wednesday Addressing the 14th CEO conference SIMS TEXPIN 2020 organised by the Southern India Mills Association (SIMA) virtually, Rashi said the textile markets are strong domestically but the problem the industry faces today due to COVID-19 would be shorter. Stating that the structural issues on raw material would be addressed soon, she said that it is for the industry to utilise the opportunities, diversify, innovate, scale-up and build global brands.

The role played by the textiles during the pandemic is for the benefit of the medical fraternity and it is marvellous, said a SIMA press release quoting the official. The official assured to consider a lot of suggestions from the industry and said there were certain procedural wrangles in the implementation of Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme and the need to make it industry-friendly.

Rashi asked the industry to grab the space left by China, even as smaller countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam overtake India in textiles and cloth exports despite the country having a large production capacity. Later, the 61st annual general meeting of SIMA re-elected Ashwin Chandran as its chairman, Ravi Sam as deputy chairman and S K Sundararaman as vice-chairman for 2020-21, the release said.