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Centre to address textile units’ woes

— PHOTO: RAJEEV BHATT

‘GOLDEN’ MOMENT: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (right) releasing a booklet on Indian textile industry, as Union Textile Minister Shankersinh Vaghela (left) and Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) Chairman P. D. Patodia look on, at the inauguration of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of CITI in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday assured the textile industry to look into its demands and problems, including the hardships faced due to rupee appreciation, so that the crucial industry’s competitiveness could be maintained and more employment generated.

Addressing the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) here, Dr. Singh said: “I am aware that the strengthening of the rupee has created some strains for our exporters. The Government will come forward and address all legitimate concerns of the textile industry so that more employment could be generated.”

Hoping that the textile sector would be able to cope with the rupee appreciation issue with its enterprise and business skills, the Prime Minister said: “Here too we have taken steps to help mitigate the laws of competitive advantage while ensuring that our external economic management is stable and sustainable.”

Dr. Singh said in making the Indian textile industry globally competitive, especially after the ‘Multi-Fibre Agreement’ (MFA) regime, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government has focused on three imperatives — the need to ensure a stable policy environment; the need to support modernisation through financing technological upgradation; and to help build global brands for Indian textiles. With the dismantling of the MFA, there is a new opportunity, but we must make up for lost time. I assure you that our government will be there to help you because I do believe the textile sector have a strategic role in our industrial economy,” he told leaders of the Indian textile industry.

Stating that the new growth areas like technical textiles will be actively promoted, the Prime Minister said: “I have already made clear our intention to launch a technology mission and technical textiles to support growth in this area.”

Asserting that the challenge in the XI Plan is to increase the skill base to make the sector competitive, he said: “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 this 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.”

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