Government Granted Approval to Four Tech Textile Startups

Nitin Konde, Apoorva Bajj

Aug 29, 2024 — 2 min read

Four Tech Textile Startups Granted Government Approval

The 8th Empowered Programme Committee (EPC) meeting under the National Technical Textiles Mission was held in Udyog Bhawan in New Delhi and it was headed by the Secretary of the Ministry of Textiles on 27 August 2024. Under the "Grant for Research & Entrepreneurship across Aspiring Innovators in Technical Textiles (GREAT)" programme, the committee has allotted around INR 50 Lakhs to four different startups.

As part of the "General Guidelines for Enabling of Academic Institutes in Technical Textiles," the committee has also given five educational institutions a grant of around INR 20 crore to start offering technical textiles courses.

The recognised Startup initiatives centre on three important strategic domains: smart textiles, sustainable textiles, and composites. New Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) programmes in technical textiles, geotextiles, geosynthetics, composites, civil structures, and related subjects have been suggested by recognised educational institutions.

India’s Textile Industry

Over the past five years, India's technical textiles market has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8-10%, making it the fifth largest market in the world. In the fiscal year 2021-22, the market size reached $21.95 billion, with domestic output amounting to $19.49 billion and imports amounting to $2.46 billion.

National Technical Textiles Mission

A National Technical Textiles Mission has been established in India with the objective of achieving an average growth rate of 15-20%. This mission was established in recognition of the potential of the India’s textile sector. Through market expansion, international collaborations, and the Make in India programme, the mission intends to realise its goal of increasing the size of the domestic market for technical textiles to between $40-$50 billion by the year 2024.

As a result of India's rapid scaling up of production of personal protective equipment (PPE) kits and masks during the Covid-19 crisis, the Technical Textiles sector acquired greater significance. This development demonstrated India's capacity to innovate even in difficult circumstances.

In October of the previous year, the Ministry of Textiles approved 23 key research projects with a total value of around INR 60 crores. Speciality fibres, sustainable textiles, geotextiles, portable technology, and sports textiles are some of the fields that are covered by these initiatives.

Government funding is available through the programme to assist companies in developing working prototypes or in the process of "commercialising" their technology. It wasn't until October 2023 that the ministry first mentioned the notion of the grants.

As part of the effort to foster innovation in technical textiles, the centre plans to provide assistance to 150 entrepreneurs. Incubators would receive 10% of the total subsidy, while 26 institutes will receive a total of INR 151 crore to upgrade their labs and create and provide technical textile courses.

Technical textiles' rising popularity can be attributed to their widespread application in industries like aviation, agriculture, and the automotive sector. Resham Sutra, Chematico Technologies, Greenwear, and many more have emerged as a result of this.