The Hindu : Business : Textiles Ministry to disburse Rs. 4,000 crores

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 04, 2004

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Textiles Ministry to disburse Rs. 4,000 crores

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 3. The Union Textiles Minister, Shanker Sinh Vaghela, today said steps were being taken to ensure that at least Rs. 3,000 crores to Rs. 4,000 crores would be disbursed under the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme in the current financial year alone.

Addressing a press conference, he said it was unfortunate that an assistance of only about Rs. 7,000 crores had been advanced to the industry in the last five years as against the target of Rs. 25,000 crores. The situation was now being now corrected.

Mr. Vaghela announced that the Ministry would take upon itself the responsibility for marketing handloom and handicraft products so that middlemen were avoided and the producers got better returns. The move would in particular tap the potential for increasing exports of handlooms, following the total removal of the quota regime from January 1, 2005.

The Ministry, he said, was also considering to provide special incentives to encourage farmers to go in for a second crop of cotton.

The Ministry, he said, was working on a scheme to promote the jute industry, considering that jute was highly eco-friendly and there was lot of demand for jute products particularly in the developed countries.

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