The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ‘Train workers for textile industry’

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 17, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

‘Train workers for textile industry’

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: Union Minister of State for Planning M.V. Rajasekharan has called upon universities and educational and training institutes engaged in textiles and apparel technology to educate and train a workforce of 65 lakh that will be required by the industry during the 11the Five Year Plan period.

He was delivering the valedictory address of a national seminar on strategies for growth of the Indian apparel industry organised by the Bangalore University here on Saturday.

The working group for textiles and clothing for the Plan period had put the category-wise requirement of workforce in the managerial, technical and administrative sections as 6.5 lakh people.

Apparel exporters

The industry needed 13 lakh people each in the skilled and unskilled categories and 32.5 lakh people as semi-skilled machine operators.

In the absence of organised efforts, India was unlikely to meet the target.

There were 8,000 apparel exporters on the registry of the Apparel Export Promotion Council contributing three per cent of the world trade in clothing and more than eight per cent of the country’s total exports.

Mr. Rajasekharan said that Chinese products were cheaper, but they lacked in value addition and fashion design.

India would stand to gain because of the strength in areas such as embroidery, use of sequins and printing, he said.

Ramachandra Gowda, MLC, appealed to the university and the industry to concentrate on cotton and silk garments.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka