Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

PM's address at the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of Confederation of Indian Textile Industry

"I am very happy to be here in your amidst at the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the Indian Cotton Mill's Federation. Textiles is not only one of our oldest industries, but also one of our most important ones. I am there fore delighted that various organizations representing the entire range of this diverse industry are now functioning under the aegis of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI).

Industry associations and chambers of commerce came into being in the days when Governments regulated, restricted and controlled business activity. Your agenda in those days was to lobby, to petition and sometimes to protest. Those days are mostly gone. Today, you function in a more open and liberal environment. I am sure this has altered the nature of your agenda. Rather than petition or lobby Governments, I assume you spend more time strategizing for the future and equipping yourself to deal with the challenges of competition, globalisation and rapid technological change which can not be wished away.

I do believe that our Government has the responsibility in three or four important areas of business, like ensuring compliance with tax laws, ensuring compliance with environmental regulations and ensuring adherence to workers' welfare and commitments made to stakeholder's. This would mean that you would at best have to deal with four or five inspectors or regulators. For the rest, the laws of the land should be able to take care of the interests of investors, consumers and workers.

I therefore hope that working together government and industry can create, very quiet political consensus in our country that will minimize Governmental interference in business activity to these four or five areas and that the Inspector Raj that still stifles enterprise will be thing of the past.

I emphasise this here because our textile industry is operating in one of the most competitive markets today and you must therefore be able to compete with other countries so that you can continue to increase production, generate additional employment at home. Your Chairman referred to the potential of this industry to provide inclusive growth. There can be no better way of ensuring that, in a highly labour intensive sector like textiles, they can and they do provide significant employment opportunities.

The Textile Sector has been a major pillar of India's industrial economy for more than one reason, but importantly because of its employment potential. We cannot ignore this dimension. Our Government will come forward and address all the legitimate concerns of the industry as long as we can work together to generate more employment. The textile industry has also contributed to the modernization of our economy. Its continued growth and global competitiveness is, therefore, a matter of utmost national importance. I assure you that our Government will pay the closest attention to devising appropriate strategies to further promote the growth and competitiveness of this vital national industry.

As I said last year at the Textiles Summit, in this sixtieth year of our independence, we cannot forget that it was the charm and allure of our magnificent textiles that drew traders from Europe to India way back some three or four centuries ago. With such a rich tradition in textiles, the desire to become a great global leader in textiles is a legitimate ambition which all of us must cherish. We have to regain that glory and once again become, as we once were, the world's best textile industry. Unfortunately, in the past century, we lost that position. Many other Asian countries, including some of our neighbours, have since overtaken us. With the dismantling of the Multi-Fibre Agreement (MFA) there is now a new opportunity, but we must make up for lost time.

I assure you that our Government will be there to help this vital industry because I do believe that the textiles sector has a strategic role in our industrial economy. First, given its wide spread dispersal across the country, it can be a vehicle for nationwide industrial modernization and revitalization of traditional skills and designs. Second, given its high labour-intensity, it can generate large-scale employment, especially close to rural areas. The fact that this industry employs a large female workforce, in semi urban and rural areas, enables it to provide employment to both men and women.

Apart from the historical tradition and the availability of skilled manpower, India's inherent strength in the textile sector also comes from the strong raw material base, a capacity for production across the entire value chain, and a large and growing domestic market, apart from the vast potential of the global market.

In making our textile industry globally competitive, especially in the post-Multi Fibre Agreement regime, our Government has focused on three imperatives: one, the need to ensure a stable policy environment; two, the need to support modernization through financing technological upgradation; and, three, to help build global brands for Indian textiles.

I am aware and as your chairman just mentioned that the strengthening of the Rupee has created some strains for our exporters. However, I am sure you have the enterprise and business acumen to deal with this challenge and improve your competitiveness. Here too we have taken steps to help mitigate the loss of competitive advantage, while ensuring that our external economic management is stable and sustainable.

Ever since our government took office, we have taken a number of fiscal measures to strengthen the textile sector. The excise duty structure has been completely tranformed with large scale concessions. Customs duty for a number of textile machinery items have been reduced and hosiery and knitwear items have been dereserved from the small-scale sector. The Technology Upgradation Fund that became popular with the industry has been further extended into the 11th Five Year Plan. The scheme for Integrated Textile Parks in Public�Private Partnership model has also been expanded.

As a result of all these measures India is also becoming a major outsourcing hub. These new growth areas that you have identified like Technical Textiles will be actively promoted and I have already made clear our intention to launch a Technology Mission on Technical Textiles to support growth in this area.

Our challenge in the 11th Plan is to increase the skill base to make this sector competitive. The National Skill Development Mission has already identified this as a thrust area of endeavour. We need innovative responses to increasing jobs in our country and the Textile industry, which has great potential to generate new jobs, has been suggesting the idea of linking guaranteed employment for a certain number of days in a policy framework that can respond adequately to the genuine demands of the sector. These issues require in-depth analysis.

The Central Budget presented this year aims at leaving more disposable income in the hands of the masses. This will drive growth of consumption in the country. Given our relatively low level of consumption in textile products at present, your industry is bound to be one of the major beneficiaries of a boom in consumption.

I extend my very best wishes to the textiles and to clothing industry and to all of you on the happy occasion of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of CITI and assure you that our government will continue to be an active partner in your progress. We have common shared goal and partnership between government and industry is the hallmark of our approach to business and industry in our country."